| Author (Corporate) | BBC |
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| Series Title | BBC News |
| Series Details | 2.11.08 |
| Publication Date | 02/11/2008 |
| Content Type | News |
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Armenia and Azerbaijan seek peace over enclave Azerbaijan yesterday welcomed a thaw in relations with Armenia after the presidents of the two countries pledged to find a political settlement to their 15-year conflict over the breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan during a violent war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has run its own affairs with support from Armenia, since a fragile ceasefire in 1994, although no state has recognised its independence. Ilham Aliev, the president of Azerbaijan, and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarksyan held talks about Nagorno-Karabakh at a meeting outside Moscow this weekend hosted by Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian -president. The three men signed a declaration agreeing to intensify diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh and to develop confidence building measures in the region. Khazar Ibrahim, a spokesman for Azerbaijan's foreign ministry, said: "This is the first ever document about Nagorno-Karabakh signed by the two heads of state. If we use the document and take practical steps we have a chance to move forward." He said Azerbaijan was prepared to consider allowing Nagorno-Karabakh some measure of self-determination, adding that "self-determination does not mean independence". Azerbaijan has demanded that Armenia withdraw troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and allow ethnic Azerbaijanis displaced during the war to return home. "Comprehensive confidence building will only be possible if both communities live together," he said. Western diplomats said the war in August between Russia and Georgia over Georgia's separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia appeared to have given impetus to diplomatic efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan has grown prosperous amid an oil boom, and has stepped up defence spending recently. However, the country has abandoned threats to retake Nagorno-Karabakh by force since the war in Georgia. Armenia, dependent on Georgia for access to the west since a blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and Turkey in the early 1990s, suffered economic losses during the August war when roads across Georgia to the Black Sea were closed. Mr Ibrahim said that Azerbaijan would invest in Nagorno-Karabakh's economic revival once the conflict was settled. "It is in everybody's interest, including Armenia's, that the conflict is resolved," he said. Armenia is willing to consider returning to Azerbaijan some territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh captured during the war, but insists that the autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh itself is not negotiable. Karlen Avetissian, Nagorno-Karabakh's permanent envoy in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, said representatives of the mountain enclave wanted to be involved in negotiations about their fate. Like many in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, he expressed fears about spiralling Azerbajaini military spending in the absence of a peace deal between Yerevan and Baku following their conflict. For its part, Turkey sided with Azerbaijan in the conflict over NagornoKarabakh, but has recently taken steps to mend its fractured relationship with Armenia, using the impetus of President Abdullah Gul's "football diplomacy" in attending September's match between the two countries in Yerevan, the Armenian capital. Additional reporting by Haig Simonian in Zurich Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 Russia mediates A glimmer of light has appeared in one of the most intractable disputes left by the collapse of the Soviet Union in the south Caucasus – not in Georgia, but in neighbouring Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the weekend,Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, persuaded the presidents of both countries to step up efforts to find a political settlement in their confrontation over the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. This may have been something of a public relations exercise by Moscow, anxious to regain the moral high ground as a mediator after its ill-judged and bloody military intervention in Georgia. But any initiative that seeks to break the deadlock between the other two south Caucasus countries, whose conflict over the enclave cost some 25,000 lives and displaced more than 1m refugees, is welcome. Since fighting ceased in 1994, the stand-off has been called a “frozen conflict”, but that is a misnomer. Both sides are dug in along a 100-mile front, with 60,000 troops and heavy armour. Azerbaijan – the loser in the conflict – has been rearming rapidly thanks to its oil revenues, and indulging in aggressive rhetoric. Fighting could break out by accident, and it would make the confrontation between Georgia and Russia in South Ossetia look like a playground brawl. Mr Medvedev made it clear in Moscow that his initiative was within the framework of negotiations launched by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and co-chaired by Russia, the US and France. That is essential. The group has produced good proposals towards a settlement, although neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan has seriously engaged to put them into effect. They include Armenian withdrawal from occupied areas of Azerbaijan outside Nagorno-Karabakh, the return of Azeri refugees, some form of international recognition of the enclave short of independence, installation of European peacekeepers, and an eventual referendum on its status. It will take a lot more pressure to get both sides to move: their political leaders have used the conflict to gain popular support. But there have just been presidential elections in both Baku and Yerevan, reducing the political temperature. The conflict in Georgia has concentrated minds on the danger of an explosion. As important, Abdullah Gül, the Turkish president, has broken the ice with Armenia by visiting the country for a football match. If both Russia and Turkey (Azerbaijan’s ally) get serious about promoting stability, not conflict, in the region, there is just a chance of progress. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 |
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| Source Link | Link to Main Source http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7705067.stm |
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| Countries / Regions | Armenia, Azerbaijan |
