AZERI LEADER SETS TERM FOR ARMENIAN BORDER OPENING

Hurriyet
May 18 2010
Turkey

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (R) and Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan speak during a joint press conference in Baku. AA photo

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Monday that his country would
open all its borders with Armenia if the government in Yerevan accepts
the revised Madrid criteria and starts to withdraw its forces from
Azerbaijani territory.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Aliyev said talks had been held for many years
to arrive at a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between
Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The press conference followed a one-on-one meeting and talks between
the Turkish and Azerbaijani delegations at Aliyev’s presidential
Zagulba Palace.

Azerbaijan has been making efforts for a fair and peaceful solution
in accordance with international law, Aliyev said, adding that his
country approved the revised Madrid criteria on the matter with few
minor exceptions and expects Armenia to act the same way.

"Armenia should express its stance on the matter," Aliyev said,
noting that the country would either display a positive stance,
bringing the parties closer to a settlement, or it would respond
negatively, destroying the negotiation process.

At a Jan. 25 meeting in Sochi, Russia, with Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev, Aliyev and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian reached verbal
agreement on the wording of the preamble of the most recently revised
version of the Madrid Principles, which constitute the outline of a
more comprehensive Karabakh peace agreement.

The original Madrid Principles were presented to the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministers at the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe ministerial conference in Madrid in November
2007. These were in turn a revised version of the Basic Principles
unveiled by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen in early summer 2006
and posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.

The principles included the phased withdrawal of Armenian troops from
five Azerbaijani territories bordering Nagorno-Karabakh, with separate
special arrangements for two additional districts of Azerbaijan –
Kelbacar and Lachin – that separate Nagorno-Karabakh from the Republic
of Armenia.

The phased withdrawal would be followed by the demilitarization,
demining and reconstruction of those territories; the deployment of
an international peacekeeping force; the return to those Azerbaijani
districts of members of the population who were forced to flee
during hostilities in 1992-93; and, finally, at some unspecified
future date, a referendum or popular vote on the final legal status
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Aliyev said at the Monday press conference that his country would
open its borders with Armenia and take peace and security measures
in the region if Yerevan ends its occupation of Azerbaijani territory.

Asked whether Azerbaijan would join the Nabucco project, Aliyev said
Azerbaijani natural gas is a great source for pipelines in the region
and added that his country could participate in such a project under
the right conditions.