LIBERATION OF KARABAKH IS AZERBAIJAN’S INTERNAL AFFAIR – ALIYEV
Interfax
Feb 8 2010
Russia
The possible resumption of hostilities by Azerbaijan to liberate
Karabakh will be an Azerbaijani internal affair rather than an
international conflict, President Ilham Aliyev told Euronews.
We have no territorial claims to any country. However, the occupied
Azerbaijani lands and Karabakh are our territory by international law.
If any incident happens there, that would be an internal affair of
Azerbaijan, not an international conflict, he said.
The Azeri media posted the interview on Monday.
Nobody in the region wants a war, and the participation of Azerbaijan
in the negotiations and its constructive attitude, including the
support to the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group chairmen, display
Azerbaijan’s intentions, the president said.
The war is not over yet. We hear about the peace settlement
negotiations and we support them. Still, we must not forget that
Armenia occupied our lands. The same as any other country, Azerbaijan
has the right to self-defense in keeping with the UN Charter. This
is the right to defend ourselves and to free our occupied lands,
Aliyev said.
Azerbaijan favors an open settlement process, he said. We support the
opening of a corridor between Karabakh and Armenia and a corridor
between Azerbaijan and its inseparable part, Nakhichevan. It is
planned to open other corridors on the border, he said.
Azerbaijan will never accept the independence of Karabakh or any
mechanisms or procedures, which may eventually lead to its separation.
A temporary status of the territory may be a solution, he said.
The settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and the
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations must be simultaneous,
he said.
We worry that [normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations] without
progress in the Karabakh settlement may weaken our chance for peace
settlement. What may happen then? We think the only possible result
is additional complications in the region, Aliyev said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
