BAKU SAYS YEREVAN EQUIVOCATING ON KARABAKH PROPOSALS

news.az
May 12 2010
Azerbaijan

Elkhan Polukhov Armenia is ducking acceptance of the OSCE’s Madrid
principles for a Karabakh settlement, an Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
spokesman has said.

Elkhan Polukhov was commenting to Interfax-Azerbaijan news agency
today on remarks made by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

‘It is surprising that Armenia is ignoring nine meetings at the level
of presidents held since 2007, that is, since the appearance of the
Madrid proposals, and is also ignoring the fact that the updated Madrid
document has been prepared and presented to the sides on the basis
of the views and approaches of the conflict parties to this issue,’
Polukhov said.

In his Committee of Ministers speech yesterday, Nalbandian accused
Azerbaijan of ‘distorting the reasons, consequences and essence of
the conflict’.

Polukhov described Nalbandian’s remarks as insinuation. ‘Obviously,
Armenia is using these insinuations to try to avoid giving a straight
answer to the question whether it accepts the updated Madrid document,’
he said.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly expressed its position on the updated Madrid
principles, the spokesman continued. ‘This position is that we accept
them with certain exceptions.’

‘If there were too many exceptions, we would never have accepted the
document,’ he continued. ‘When there are more than 50% exceptions,
any acceptance of a document is out of the question.’

The updated version of the Madrid principles, put forward by the OSCE
mediators in late 2009, has been the subject of mutual accusations
between Armenia and Azerbaijan ever since.

Baku accepts the updated principles in general, but ‘there are
elements that do not suit us’, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
said in March. Nalbandian responded on 29 March that Armenia had
accepted the OSCE’s Madrid principles for a Karabakh settlement as
a basis for talks two years ago.

The Madrid principles include the return of the territories surrounding
Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, an interim status for Karabakh
providing guarantees for security and self-governance, and the future
determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through
a legally binding expression of will. The status of Karabakh remains
the biggest sticking point in the negotiations.