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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Armenia withdrawal only solution to Karabakh conflict |
| 2010-03-02 |
| [Iran Press TV Latest] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that Baku does not want war, but cannot tolerate the occupation of Armenia in its land. Speaking in the northern district of Qabala on Saturday, Aliyev said Azerbaijan would continue its efforts to resolve the Karabakh dispute with Armenia, stressing that this can only be achieved when Armenia recognizes Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. It has been almost 21 years since the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia engaged in an armed conflict over the 4400-square-kilometer (1,700-square-mile) mountainous Karabakh region. After six years of intensive fighting, about 20 percent of Azerbaijan's land, including seven towns surrounding Karabakh, was occupied; up to one million Azerbaijanis were displaced and some 40,000 people from both sides were killed. The conflict, known as the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which broke out in February 1988, ended in a ceasefire on May 16, 1994, but there has been no agreement so far to turn the ceasefire into a permanent peace treaty. "We want our historically and internationally recognized lands to be freed and our citizens returned to their homes," Aliyev said. "We are being told that the problem must be solved peacefully. This is what we also support. But no one must forget that the Armenians occupied these lands in military ways, not peacefully," he added. "Armenians must unconditionally withdraw from our lands. And only after that should cooperation and peace be established." Earlier Saturday, at a meeting with the French ambassador, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev said, "If Armenia does not free Azerbaijani occupied territories; a war in the South Caucasus is inevitable," Abiyev said diplomats have failed to achieve results for 15 years in negotiations. "Azerbaijan will not be able to wait 15 more years. Now the war is inevitable and the threat is gradually approaching," Abiyev said. Azerbaijani Presidential Administration senior official Ali Hasanov noted that Aliyev has repeatedly stated that he considers the potential of negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement still viable. "Therefore, Azerbaijan continues its efforts in this direction. However the president also repeatedly pointed out that as soon as Azerbaijan feels that the potential for negotiations has been exhausted, the country will take steps to restore its territorial integrity, sovereignty and violated rights through all possible means." Hasanov said. "OSCE MG [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Minsk Group] co-chairs have submitted proposals to both republics and the sides exchanges views on this," Hasanov said. "However, the negotiating parties have not provided enough information. I do not have extensive information on what will be the follow-up processes or at what stage they are expected to coordinate these proposals." The OSCE MG, co-chaired by the United States, France and Russia, was established in 1992 to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict but has so far failed to resolve the long-standing dispute. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 ION TOPIX > AZERBAIJAN WARNS OF GREAT WAR OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH; + WHICH SIDE WILL IRAN, TURKEY, AND RUSSIA SIDE IN NAGORNO-KARABAH WAR? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-03-02 19:11 |
| #2 There's more to the story.... from WIKI: The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh[9] in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, entangled themselves in a protracted, undeclared war in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb the secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave's parliament had voted in favor of uniting itself with Armenia and a referendum was held, and the vast majority of the Karabakh population voted in favor of independence. The demand to unify with Armenia, which proliferated in the late 1980s, began in a relatively peaceful manner; however, in the following months, as the Soviet Union's disintegration neared, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between ethnic Armenians and ethnic Azerbaijanis, resulting in claims of ethnic cleansing by all sides.[10][11] Inter-ethnic fighting between the two broke out shortly after the parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) in Azerbaijan, voted to unify the region with Armenia on February 20, 1988. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the final result of a territorial conflict regarding the land.[12] The circumstances of the dissolution of the Soviet Union facilitated an Armenian separatist movement in Azerbaijan. As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the enclave's government, the Armenian majority voted to secede from Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the enclave the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.[13] Full-scale fighting erupted in the late winter of 1992. International mediation by several groups including Europe's OSCE failed to bring an end resolution that both sides could work with. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself, threatening the involvement of other countries in the region.[14] By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also held and currently control approximately 9% of Azerbaijan's territory outside the enclave.[15] As many as 230,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan and 800,000 Azeris from Armenia and Karabakh have been displaced as a result of the conflict.[16] A Russian-brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan. |
| Posted by: Mike Hunt 2010-03-02 16:29 |
| #1 That's... kind of interesting. Haven't the Armenians been in a tacit alliance with the Iranians since the collapse of the Soviet Union? Sort of a Russia-Armenia-Iran axis, in opposition to a Turkish-Georgian-Azerbaijan de-facto alliance? Is this the mullahs signaling openness to a realignment with the Azeris, now that the AKP-dominated Turks are becoming more sympathetic to the Persian alliance? Are they hoping to pick up the Azeris as they get spooked by the Obama-Clinton fumbling away of the Bush-era regional strategy? |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2010-03-02 11:28 |