ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN SUMMIT FALLS SHORT OF BREAKTHROUGH
By Stuart Williams
Agence France Presse
June 24 2011
MOSCOW – Armenia and Azerbaijan reported progress Friday at a summit
hosted by Russia but fell short of a breakthrough in a territorial
row that world powers fear could erupt into armed conflict.
“The heads of state noted the reaching of mutual understanding on
a number of questions, whose resolution helps create conditions
to approve the basic principles,” the leaders said in a statement
published by the Kremlin.
The two sides have faced international pressure to sign up to a
“basic principles” agreement on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict zone,
but apparently did not manage to agree terms at the summit in the
Russian Volga city of Kazan.
The leaders were shown sitting around a table and smiling for cameras
on Russian television, which did not broadcast their remarks.
The meeting supervised by Russia President Dmitry Medvedev had sparked
optimism that Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and his Azerbaijani
counterpart Ilham Aliyev might achieve the first major progress in
many years of fruitless talks.
The two sides still exchange deadly fire around the Nagorny Karabakh
conflict zone, 17 years after fighting a war over the now Armenian
separatist-controlled region in western Azerbaijan.
The Russian foreign ministry had said in a statement that the meeting,
held behind closed doors, was “expected to play a decisive role in
the Nagorny Karabakh peace process.”
Moscow added that the document Medvedev hoped to get the two enemies to
sign at the meeting was designed to pave the way for “a comprehensive
peace agreement” to be sealed at a later date.
In the statement released after the summit, the leaders expressed
“gratitude” to the leaders of Russia, the United States and France
for their “constant attention to the problem of regulating Nagorny
Karabakh.”
They also said they “highly rated the personal efforts of the Russian
president to help reach agreements.”
But they failed to meet international pressure, expressed in recent
days, that they would sign up to a “basic principles” agreement.
US President Barack Obama on Thursday had called the two presidents
and urged them to sign the document, the White House said, while
French leader Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter calling for the agreement
to be finalised.
“There are moments in history when the leadership of a country should
demonstrate to its people courage, wisdom and the road toward peace,”
Sarkozy said in the letter released by the Armenian presidency.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe — which
has led the international peace initiative since the Karabakh war —
had also expressed hopes for a breakthrough.
“Very rarely have we observed moments when our hopes for a final peace
settlement have been as high as they are now,” said OSCE Secretary
General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut.
Armenia’s Sarkisian told a meeting of the Council of Europe on
Wednesday that he was “full of optimism” but fearful of new demands
from Azerbaijan.
In a sign of continuing differences, Azerbaijan’s Aliyev responded
in an interview Thursday that Armenia needed to show “the political
will to make important steps forward”.
The interim basic principles agreement would see an Armenian
withdrawal from areas around Karabakh that were also seized during
the post-Soviet war.
It also envisages international security guarantees and a vote on
the final status of the territory at some point in the future.
The conflict in the 1990s killed some 30,000 people and forced around
a million from their homes.
Western negotiators are concerned that a new flare-up could be even
bloodier and potentially threaten pipelines that take Caspian Sea
oil and gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.
Russia meanwhile remains sensitive to any rise in hostilities on its
vulnerable and already restive southern border.
Huge obstacles remain to a final peace deal because Armenia says
Karabakh will never return to Baku’s control while Azerbaijan insists
that the region must remain part of its sovereign territory.