FRESH ARMENIAN-AZERI SUMMIT STILL IN QUESTION
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 5 2007
Armenian and Azerbaijani officials have made ambiguous statements
on the possibility of yet another meeting between their presidents
which international mediators view as the last chance to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the coming months.
Azerbaijani media quoted Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on Friday
as not ruling out such an encounter on the sidelines of the upcoming
weekend summit of former Soviet republics in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Mammadyarov said at the same that Presidents Ilham Aliev and Robert
Kocharian have no plans yet to hold one-on-one talks there.
Aliev’s chief foreign policy aide, Novruz Mammadov, was reported
to say on Thursday that the latest round of peace talks mediated by
the American, French and Russian co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
"did not create the need" for a fresh Armenian-Azerbaijani summit.
For his part, Kocharian’s press secretary, Victor Soghomonian, said
the Armenian leader’s itinerary in Dushanbe does not contain a meeting
with Aliev. Still, Soghomonian too did not exclude the possibility
of such talks.
It was not clear if the Minsk Group co-chairs, who usually attend
the opening sessions of Aliev-Kocharian talks, plan to travel to the
Tajik capital. Earlier this week, they met separately with Oskanian
and Mammadyarov in New York. No agreements were announced as a result.
The consultations came two weeks after the mediators’ most recent visit
to the conflict zone. They expressed hope during the trip that Aliev
and Kocharian will again try to iron out their remaining differences
on a framework peace agreement put forward by the Minsk Group. The
two men failed to do that when they last met in the Russian city
of Saint Petersburg in June, all but dashing hopes for a near-term
solution to the Karabakh conflict.
The chief U.S. Karabakh negotiator, Matthew Bryza, warned in Yerevan
that Aliev’s and Kocharian’s refusal to meet again this year would
raise questions about their commitment to mutual compromise. "If
they don’t say yes, then you’ll wonder, ‘What are they thinking in
the back of their mind? What are their plans? Are they really fully
committed to reaching an agreement?’" he said.
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday,
Oskanian claimed that the conflicting parties are "inching towards
resolution." He praised the Minsk Group’s existing peace proposals for
upholding "the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to determine
their own future."
Mammadyarov, for his part, urged the international community to
respect his country’s territorial integrity and said he is confident
that it will not allow the impending international recognition
of Kosovo’s secession from Serbia to set a precedent for conflict
resolution. "Armenia can say whatever it wants on the issue," he said.
"We have no intention to use Kosovo as a precedent for our conflict,
since that would contradict our own position that all conflicts are
different," countered Oskanian. "But at the same time, we won’t
understand or accept the reverse logic – that if Kosovo is given
independence, no other people can achieve self-determination. No one
should tell us that there is a quota on liberty and security."