ALIYEV PRAISES BAKU’S DIPLOMATIC, POLITICAL STEPS ON KARABAKH
Interfax News Agency
April 14 2008
Russia
Azerbaijan’s military spending will reach $2 billion in 2008,
the country’s President Ilham Aliyev said at a governmental session
summing up the results of the socio-economic development in the first
quarter of 2008 on Monday.
The session was broadcast on national television.
"The main issue is to resolve the Armenian-Azeri Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict and to restore Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. The
diplomatic and political steps in this direction have been successful,"
the president said.
Meanwhile, Baku has urged Yerevan to recognize the hopelessness of
the efforts of Nagorno-Karabakh to gain independence.
"If they [Armenians] really want to have the conflict settled soon,
in the first place they should recognize that the conflict must be
settled in the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan as
the entire world community has recognized it," Azeri Foreign Minister
Elmar Mamedyarov told Lider TV channel.
"Armenia must definitely recognize that," he said.
"The sooner they realize that Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan,
the better it is going to be for them and for the region as a whole,"
Mamedyarov said.
He said that the declaration of new Armenian president, Serzh Sargsyan,
that he will carry on the policy of his predecessor Robert Kocharian
and work for the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh is a move meant for
the domestic audience in Armenia. "With such groundless statements the
Armenian side is only dragging out the settlement process," he added.
Speaking of the efforts of cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk group to
promote the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Mamedyarov
said that the mediators will report on the progress of the negotiating
process in Vienna next week.
"This [the Karabakh conflict] is not only a business of the cochairmen
but the entire OSCE Minsk group because OSCE gave the Minsk group a
special mandate," he said.
He also said that involving the Azeri and Armenian communities of
Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiating process is not on the agenda now.
Currently the talks continue at the level of presidents and foreign
ministers.