Analysis: Azerbaijan Rejects Armenian Warning Over Karabakh Talks
By Liz Fuller
Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Nov 10 2004
In an exclusive interview on 9 November with RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said that he and
his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov made “serious progress”
during their four rounds of talks on approaches to resolving the
Karabakh conflict. Oskanian said it is now possible to begin a
second stage of talks building on what was achieved earlier, and
that Azerbaijan has signaled its readiness for such talks. “Armenia
has already given its positive answer and is ready to resume the
negotiations [as early as] tomorrow,” Oskanian said.
Since May, Oskanian and Mammadyarov have met four times in Strasbourg
and Prague to discuss approaches to resolving the conflict. Whatever
provisional consensus they reached was the subject of discussion
at a meeting on 15 September between the two countries’ presidents,
Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev, on the sidelines of a CIS summit in
Astana, after which Oskanian said there would be an “interval” before
the second stage of his talks with Mammadyarov began. Azerbaijani
Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said in late September that the
past meetings with Oskanian had proved “useful” but that further such
talks had been postponed “indefinitely” at Armenia’s request.
No details have been divulged of the issues on the table in Prague,
and that enforced confidentiality has spawned rumors that Yerevan
is prepared to withdraw from either three or five of the seven
occupied Azerbaijani districts bordering on Karabakh even before
a final decision is reached on the future political status of the
unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
On 27 October, the Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a formal statement
denying such speculation. “Regardless of Azerbaijan’s wishes or
statements, Armenia’s focus during negotiations is on the issue of
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. All other issues are tangential to the
status issue, and Armenia views them only in the context of the future
status of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the statement said. It further underscored
that Yerevan “is interested only in a comprehensive resolution of this
issue, and its participation in negotiations is conditional on that
approach,” the statement continued. In other words, Armenia wants the
final agreement on a solution to the conflict to address, and stipulate
a solution to, all disputed issues, and to specify the order and time
frame in which the various points agreed upon will be implemented.
Also in his 9 November interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service,
Oskanian criticized as “a diplomatic error” Baku’s insistence on
including on the agenda of the UN General Assembly the issue of the
resettlement of Armenian families on territory controlled by Armenian
forces. He warned that Azerbaijan should not proceed on the assumption
that it can continue negotiations on resolving the Karabakh conflict
under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group while at the same time seeking the assistance
of other international organizations in resolving individual issues
related to that conflict. Armenia wants the final agreement on a
solution to the conflict to address, and stipulate a solution to,
all disputed issues, and to specify the order and time frame in which
the various points agreed upon will be implemented.
“Either we continue the negotiations within the Minsk Group,
trying to reach a solution of the whole problem, or Azerbaijan
can take the issue to other instances, seeking separate solutions,”
Oskanian said. Should Azerbaijan choose the latter approach, Oskanian
said, the Azerbaijani authorities will have to negotiate with the
Nagorno-Karabakh leadership. “Today the ball is in [Azerbaijan’s]
court,” Oskanian concluded.
But on 10 November Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Metin Mirza
rejected Oskanian’s warning that Azerbaijan should not try to launch
a parallel mediation effort as an effort to “torpedo” the negotiating
process at a juncture when “favorable conditions” had been created
for making progress. He inferred that Yerevan is “seriously concerned”
by the prospect of the UN General Assembly debate. And he stressed yet
again that Baku will not agree to negotiate with the Nagorno-Karabakh
leadership.
President Aliyev similarly argued last week that raising the Karabakh
issue in other international forums will not jeopardize the ongoing
search for a solution under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group,
nor does Baku seek to replace the Minsk Group by another mediator,
ITAR-TASS reported. Aliyev said Baku simply wants international
organizations such as the UN, the EU, and the Council of Europe
to “recognize unequivocally that Armenia has occupied part of
Azerbaijan’s territory,” and that this “unfair situation” should be
corrected. Touring four southern regions of Azerbaijan on 9 November,
President Aliyev said that Baku will not sign a formal Karabakh peace
agreement until Armenian forces have retreated from the districts
adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh that they currently occupy, ITAR-TASS
reported. “We demand with justification that the seized territory be
freed and the occupying forces withdraw,” Aliyev said while visiting
Astara, where he formally opened a new cargo terminal on the border
with Iran.