ARMENIA NEEDS ANOTHER GOVT FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT TO BE SETTLED – AZERI OFFICIAL
Interfax
May 30 2011
Russia
The two-decade Azeri-Armenian conflict over Azerbaijan’s secessionist
Armenian-speaking enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh will take a while to
settle through talks, though Azerbaijan avoids attempts to resolve
it by armed force, a senior Azeri official said on Friday.
“Azerbaijan has a right today to start war and liberate its lands;
international law allows us to do this, but we are not doing it,”
Ali Hasanov, head of the Azeri State Committee for Refugees and
Displaced Persons, told reporters in commenting on a statement in
which the Russian, U.S. and French presidents called on Azerbaijan
and Armenia to avoid war.
“All the statement says applies to Armenia, to its president, to the
separatist part of the Armenian people,” he said.
As long as Serzh Sargsyan remains president of Armenia and other top
governmental positions in the country are held by people who come from
Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia will not sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan,
Hasanov said.
“A peace treaty would mean an end to their rule in Armenia. If
international organizations, the United States, France and Russia
want the conflict to be settled, they should help change the current
regime in Armenia,” he said.
The presidents of Russia, the United States and France – Dmitry
Medvedev, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy – warned Azerbaijan and
Armenia in their statement that use of force would lead to further
confrontation and urged them to prepare their nations for peace rather
than war.