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AZERBAIJAN MAY QUIT TALKS, AS ARMENIA RENEGES
Baku Sun, February 16, 2007
 BAKU - Baku may break off peace talks with neighboring Armenia over the occupied Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh unless Yerevan sticks to previous agreements, a top Azerbaijani diplomat has said.
"I want to tell the Armenian side that there is no use continuing negotiations at all if they are not based on previous agreements," Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov warned on Monday.
Azimov, also the Azerbaijani president's envoy for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, was commenting to the media on the recent meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, Elmar Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanyan, in Moscow as part of a further round of negotiations to resolve the 19-year-old conflict.
Azerbaijan and Armenia reached a ceasefire in 1994 to end the bloodshed that had lasted for almost six years and claimed thousands of lives. The Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts were occupied by Armenia, while almost a million Azerbaijani civilians were driven out of those areas in the wake of the conflict. Yerevan is still demanding independence for the separatist region, but Baku says it is ready to grant the highest level of self-administration to Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan's borders.
"On some issues Vardan Oskanyan expressed a position which totally contradicted the discussions that have been 1 underway for the past two years. It was about the return of ethnic Azerbaija-nis to Nagorno-Karabakh and the use of the road through Lachin," Azimov told journalists.
Lachin is a key occupied Azerbaijani district connecting Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia is reportedly refusing to use the Lachin corridor jointly with Azerbaijan.
"This [stand] is not constructive. Yerevan must know that Azerbaijan will never agree to Lachin being controlled by Armenia," Azimov said, pointing out that the only possibility is joint use of the corridor.
"The overland connection between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh is feasible only if the Lachin corridor is jointly used with respect for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity," he said.
"If the Armenians want to make progress in the determination of the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh, they must understand that it is impossible without the return of the Azerbaijani community to Karabakh. Conditions should be established for the security of ethnic Azer-baijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian troops should be withdrawn from the region," Azimov concluded.
FOREIGN MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN DISCUSSES NAGORNO-KARABAKH PROBLEM WITH UN SECRETARY GENERAL
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS
TAHIR TAGIZADEH: "UN CANNOT BE CALLED A NEW FORMAT FOR CONFLICT SETTLEMENT"
MAMMADYAROV: I'D LIKE TO BELIEVE THAT ARMENIA WILL DEMONSTRATE A POLITICAL WILL
ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJAN ENVOYS MEET OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH
PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV ATTENDED COMMEMORATION CEREMONY FOR THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF KHOJALY GENOCIDE
OSCE OFFICIAL HOPES FOR GARABAGH ACCORD IN 2007
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March 2007,
Issue No. 47
Previous Issues
UNDP Azerbaijan Website
Bulletin Home Page
NOVRUZ RINGING THE DOORBELL
Azernews, March 20, 2007
Aliyev congratulates nation on historic date
The Azerbaijani people celebrated national holidays in a rather low-key way during the Soviet Union times. However, after they asserted sovereignty and established an independent state upon the Soviet collapse in 1991, March 20-21 - the Novruz Bayrami (Holiday) marking the advent of spring - were officially announced holidays. President Ilham Aliyev has lately issued a decree announcing the celebration of the holiday for five days for the first time in the republic's history. Under the decision, the people of Azerbaijan will celebrate the date for a full week starting this year.
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