AZERBAIJAN RULES OUT NON-AGGRESSION PACT WITH ARMENIA

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22.03.2010

Azerbaijan rejected over the weekend an Armenian proposal to sign of
a non-aggression pact before the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, saying that Yerevan should first ensure the liberation of
occupied Azerbaijani territories.

President Serzh Sarkisian made the proposal in an interview with
Euronews television that was aired late on Friday. "That would create
an atmosphere of trust in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh," he said. "And
in those conditions, we would start negotiations over a settlement."

"If the head of Armenia wants to eliminate the threat of use of force
[by Azerbaijan,] then let him eliminate the causes that can lead to
the use of force," a spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry,
Elkhan Polukhov, said on Saturday. "Namely, to withdraw Armenian
forces from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories."

According to Azerbaijani media, Polukhov said Baku will therefore
retain its "right to restore territorial integrity" which he said is
guaranteed by international law. Azerbaijani leaders have repeatedly
threatened to solve the Karabakh conflict by military means if the
protracted peace talks with Armenia fail to yield an agreement.

Non-use of force or threat of force as well as territorial integrity
and peoples’ right to self-determination are the three fundamental
principles of a Karabakh settlement favored by international mediators
and upheld by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
at a ministerial conference held in Athens late last year. The foreign
ministers of both Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a relevant declaration
that was adopted by the forum.

Sarkisian called for an Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement on non-use of
force in response to a question about Baku’s claims that it will never
come to terms with the loss of Karabakh. He stood by the official
Armenian line that Karabakh has never been part of an independent
Azerbaijan and should therefore remain under Armenian control.

Sarkisian did not comment on the mediators’ recently amended basic
principles of Karabakh peace and chances of their acceptance by the
conflicting parties in the course of this year.