Minister outlines Karabakh solution to be considered by Azeri, Armenian leaders
ANS TV, Baku
8 Sep 04
[Presenter] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on a visit to France
today [8 September] met the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairman from France,
Henry Jacolin, and Senate Speaker Christian Poncelet. ANS TV’s
correspondent Qanira Pasayeva has details from Paris. Good evening,
Qanira. Please, tell us what you have.
[Correspondent over video of Paris] Good evening, Natavan. First,
I would like to talk about the president’s meeting with OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairman from France, Henry Jacolin. This meeting lasted
about an hour and its interesting point was that after the meeting with
Jacolin, Ilham Aliyev had a 45-minute conversation with [Azerbaijani]
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
In an interview with us, Jacolin did not go into detail about the
talks, however, he added that after the upcoming Astana [Kazakhstan]
meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan [at a summit of
the Commonwealth of Independent States], he would be able to speak
about the progress. He also added that for the first time, at the
Prague meeting of the [Azerbaijani and Armenian] foreign ministers
[on 30 August], very serious processes and issues were covered.
Elmar Mammadyarov left the conversation with the president a short
while ago, saying that the co-chairmen would report to the presidents
in Astana on their proposals. It is intriguing that one of these
proposals, to be debated by the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents,
is the liberation of Azerbaijan’s occupied districts around Nagornyy
Karabakh. The Armenian troops must be pulled out of these areas and a
guarantee must be given to the internally displaced persons that they
would return to those districts and would not come under attacks.
A similar guarantee will be given by Azerbaijan to the effect that
it will conduct discussions on the status of Nagornyy Karabakh.
Mammadyarov said that there would be other proposals. However,
the major proposal the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents will be
presented with by the co-chairs is the above mentioned one. When
we asked Mammadyarov if Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
had accepted that this was to be presented at the meeting of the
presidents in this way, he said that Oskanyan had already agreed to it.
This proposal is not unlike the former stage-by-stage option, including
several components of the package option. However, we all expecting
for the outcome of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents’ meeting,
Jacolin said. [Passage omitted: some other aspects of the meetings.]