AZERBAIJANI FM SAYS NO COMPROMISE REGARDING TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF HIS COUNTRY
ARMENPRESS
May 10 2007
BAKU, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS: Before flying today to Strasbourg, France,
for a separate meeting with the cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk group,
Azerbaijani foreign affairs minister Elmar Mamedyarov said Baku will
never compromise in what is related to the territorial integrity of
the country.
"There can not be even a word about concessions because it is
Azerbaijani land,’ he was quoted as saying by Trend news agency.
Mamedyarov said the Armenian side’s statements that the conflict can
be solved only through a compromise option ‘are laughable and have
been designed for domestic consumption ahead of the parliamentary
elections.’ Azerbaijan’s foreign minister said also that the ‘secret
details’ of the talks, exposed earlier this week by Azerbaijani
president Ilham Aliyev are what is being negotiated by the conflicting
sides and will be negotiated today when Mamedyarov and his Armenian
counterpart Vartan Oskanian will be having separate meetings with
the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen from Russia, France and USA.
In May 3 remarks Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev claimed that
Armenia has agreed to liberate all seven Azerbaijani districts
surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh as part of a peace agreement, discussed
currently by the conflicting parties.
He was quoted by Azerbaijani media as saying that the Armenian side
is ready to withdraw even from the Lachin district which provides
the shortest overland connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and
Armenia proper. Aliyev further claimed that under the terms of the
peace deal proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group short-term international
peace-keepers may be deployed to control the land corridor before it
is placed under Azerbaijani control.
Aliyev’ statements were promptly denied by Armenian officials. "I
don’t known what goals Azerbaijan president is pursuing, but it is
known to everyone that our basic principles concerning the conflict
resolution have not changed ," prime minister Serzh Sarkisian told
Armenian journalists "So take Aliyev’s statements easy."
He was echoed by deputy parliament chairman Vahan Hovhanesian from
the ARF who said, "The statements relating to territorial concessions
are untrue."
Aliyev also claimed on May 3 that Karabakh’s status would be determined
after the liberation of the Armenian-occupied districts "within the
framework of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity."
In a recent interview with the French-Armenian magazine "Nouvelles
d’Armenie," Armenian prime minister Serzh Sarkisian said the Karabakh
conflict can be resolved "only on the condition that Karabakh will
never be under Azerbaijani control."