Armenia, Azerbaijan `Close To Karabakh Deal'

[Hovik]

Ivanov Stunned The Azerbaijanis;

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
January 27, 2006 Friday

IVANOV STUNNED THE AZERBAIJANIS;
Baku is not prepared to have Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh
to deal with

by Sokhbet Mamedov

SERGEI IVANOV'S WORDS ON HOW RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS COULD HELP WITH
NAGORNO-KARABAKH SETTLEMENT STUNNED OFFICIAL BAKU; Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov leaves official Baku wondering what Moscow is really
after.


The Kremlin's policy in the Caucasus seems to be getting more active.
At least, this is the impression Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov's
visit to Azerbaijan made on observers. Ivanov made a number of
unexpected and important statements in Baku, yesterday.

His talks with Azerbaijani Defense Minister, Colonel General Safar
Abiyev over, Ivanov told journalists that he did not rule out the
possibility of Russian peacekeepers' involvement in the Karabakh
conflict settlement. "First and foremost, political and diplomatic
settlement of the conflict should be concentrated on," he said.
"Discussions of peacekeeping operations including the ones with the
Russian Armed Forces' involvement should be left for later." By the
accord between Baku and Yerevan, peacekeepers deployed in
Nagorno-Karabakh are not supposed to include contingents of the
armies of the OSCE Minsk Group chairmen Russia being one of them.

Russian defense minister's statements evoked an ambivalent response
in Azerbaijan. Abiyev said that should the talks with Armenia over
Karabakh be disrupted, official Baku would do everything to "liberate
the occupied territories". In other words, the Azerbaijan leadership
is through with the delays in the talks and would not balk at sending
the regular army to reclaim the territories it says belong to it.
Prominent political scientist, Vafa Gulizade, believes that Russia
does not even want peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He says that
the Kremlin needs this conflict to remain unsolved because it enables
Russia to promote its geopolitical interests in the southern part of
the Caucasus and that Baku holds Russia responsible for the situation
where Armenia is occupying almost 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan.
That is why Ivanov's offer of Russian peacekeepers for the Karabakh
settlement is taken in Baku as an attempt on Moscow's part to
establish military control over the territory of Azerbaijan.

Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, January 25, 2006, p. 5

[Hovik]

Arkadi Gukasyan not to attend the meeting of separatists in Moscow

Today, Azerbaijan
Jan 28 2006

Arkadi Gukasyan not to attend the meeting of separatists in Moscow

29 January 2006 [00:06] - Today.Az

The heads of separatist Abkhazia, South Osetia and Dnestr regimes
will meet in Moscow.

As APA informs, the Head of Abkhazian separatists Sergey Bagapsh left
for the capital of Russia yesterday. Head of South Osetian
separatists Edward Kokoyte is already in Moscow. Igor Smirnov, head
of Dnestr separatists is also expected to visit Moscow soon.

The separatist "trio" coming together in Moscow will exchange views
on different issues. The discussions will focus on the reactions of
Georgia and Moldova to the Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone.

It should be noted that, Arkadi Gukasyan, head of the separatists of
Nagorno Karabakh have missed the meeting of the separatists for
several times. According to the experts, it is due to the recent
intensified process of talks on the solution of Nagorno Karabakh and
different statements on the possibility of the solution of the
conflict within this year: "Armenia is likely not to let Arkadi
Gukasyan attend such meetings in such decisive situation".


URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/22641.html

[Gavur]

Azeri Leader Hits At "unfounded" Opposition Remarks On Karabakh Talks

ANS Radio, Baku
1 Feb 06

Nagornyy Karabakh will never part with Azerbaijan and other decisions
might be adopted should talks fail, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
has told a Cabinet of Ministers session on the results of 2005 [on
31 January].

We will continue making efforts to resolve the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict in 2006. Provocative remarks by some political forces
should not confuse the Azerbaijani people. Opinions expressed by the
opposition circles about the adoption of certain decisions on the
Karabakh problem are unfounded. First, no decision has been taken.

Second, I wonder where they have got this information from. What are
these lies for? Azerbaijan's position remains unchanged. I repeated
this here today. Nagornyy Karabakh will not part with Azerbaijan today,
tomorrow, in 10 or 15 years. During my presidency I will never sign
an agreement reflecting this, end of quote.

[Gavur]

De-armenization Of Shahumian And Getashen Central Element Of The Talks

The 15th anniversary of forced deportation of the Armenian population from Shahumian and Getashen will be soon marked. The tragic events of Shahumian and Getashen are significant in the context of Nagorno Karabakh regulation especially as a counterargument for returning the disputed lands.

Talking to daily Azg on this occasion, Vahram Atanesian, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at the NKR Parliament, underscored the fact that Shahumian region with its indigenously Armenian population, where currently 20.000 Armenians live, was forcefully united with the region of Geranboy thus, in fact outlawing the Armenians. As a result of this Shahumian and Getashen appeared in military occupation by the troops of the 4th Soviet Army stationed in Kirovabad and the special squads of the Azeri militia that recruited criminals released from prisons particularly for this purpose.

"Having cut off Shahumian and whole Nagorno Karabakh from the outer world, the Azeri authorities went into wide-range offensive in late January with a purpose to clean the territory off its Armenian population and inhabit with Azeris. The Azeri government supported this plan by special decrees that established the fact of 'inhabiting the deserted houses'," the parliamentarian said.

Vahram Atansian stated that such violation have no analogue in modern European history. Getashen, Kamo, Azat and Martunashen, 14 villages of Hadrut region and all Armenian villages of Berdadzor lost their Armenian population already in May of 1991; hundreds of innocent Armenians ended up in jails and concentration camps of Shushi, Agdam, Fizuli, Kirovabad and Baku. Destiny of most of them is unclear up to now.

The "Ring" operation organized against the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh can and should be labeled genocide within all international law criteria, Atanesian said.

"It's obvious that Azerbaijan was trying to solve the Karabakh issue in that way. It failed only thanks to the armed resistance of the Armenian population. It should be noted that the post-1994 situation is the result of not the Karabakh authorities' state plan to carry out ethnic cleansings and occupy new lands, as Azerbaijan strives to portrait before the world community, but the result of self-defense in the face of the Azeri attack - a term that the international law views as a right to punish an attacking state," Atanesian said.

Welcoming international efforts, particularly those of the Minsk Group, for peaceful regulation of Karabakh conflict, Atanesian emphasized that the latter have to pay attention to the situation 15 years ago when the Azeris launched "Ring" operation. The fact of de-Armenization of Northern Karabakh - Getashen and Shahumian - and its settlement with Azeris should be considered a central element of the negotiations, Atanesian thinks, but the mediators' silence over this issue does not inspire hope of a just regulation.

"The people of Nagorno Karabakh Republic and the legitimate authorities it has elected are consistent in this issue," Atanesian pointed out, "and cannot accept any regulation model that will not guarantee NKR's sovereignty within the borders acceptable for its people including Northern Artsakh that was alienated from Nagorno Karabakh in 1923 but has been under Azeri control since 1922 now."

By Kim Gabrielian

[Gavur]

Successful Development Of Peace Process Depends

SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF PEACE PROCESS DEPENDS ON A NUMBER OF FACTORS WHICH ARE OFTEN IGNORED: POLITICAL ANALYST

STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 2. ARMINFO. Analysis of the negotiations for settlement of Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict showed that successful development of peace process depends on a number of factors which are often ignored, a Karabakh analyst David Karabekyan told ARMINFO.

First of all, international and regional organizations and mediators must made unbiased decisions and propose peaceful plans, demands to the conflicting parties in accordance with the situation in the region. Thus, the one-sided pro-Azeri orientation of Ankara has always spurred up the ambitions and aggression of Baku. It aggravated Azerbaijani-Russian relations in 1992-1993.

The analyst mentioned another factor: existence of conditions for peaceful initiatives in the conflict zone. Azerbaijani diplomats like spreading the topic of dislocation of peacemakers in the zone, neglecting an important element of mutual security of the parties i.e. the front line separating the armed forces of the parties have become so narrow in some areas that dislocation of peacemakers there is impossible materially. The situation with other elements of security is not better, for example, exchange of information of cease-fire violations etc.. The analyst mentioned the attempts of international and regional organizations to adjust peace processes to their interests. He brought the example of Caspian Sea basin in 1994. Now, attempts are made to create a base to exert pressure on Iran or to oust Russia from the region, he said. All these factors affect the settlement process, the analyst said.

[Gavur]

Organization In Defense of Nagorno Karabakh Urged Armenian Parliament to Recognize Ka

Organization In Defense of Nagorno Karabakh Urged Armenian Parliament to Recognize Karabakh Independence
04.02.2006 20:35 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Organization In Defense of Nagorno Karabakh has urged the Armenian Parliament to recognize legitimacy of Karabakh’s independence. According to leader of the Democratic Party of Armenia Aram Sargsyan, “Armenia should state that Karabakh has seceded from Azerbaijan legally, by observing international norms.” Besides, organization members believe that as Baku does not recognize Karabakh as a party to the conflict, meetings of representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan should be ceased. The document with proposals of the organization is planned to be submitted to the Armenian MFA, OSCE Office in Yerevan, and embassies of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries.

[Gavur]

Border Clans vs. Alphabet Nation

Azerbaijan had always been a marchland, conquered by Alexander the Great and fought over by Turkey and Persia for centuries. As with Georgia, Russia entered the fray here relatively late, occupying the area briefly in the 1720s and 1730s and then returning in the nineteenth century. The local Azeris, who knew little political unity until the twentieth century, speak a Turkic language much like modem Turkish, but they are Shi'ite, like most Iranians. Most Azeris live not in Azerbaijan but to the south, in northwestern Iran. Until the early twentieth century, the Azeris were considered "Tartars" by their neighbors, and responded to questions about themselves by mentioning their family, their clan, and their religion--but rarely their national group. Georgia has a 2,500-year-old alphabet all its own. Azerbaijan, by contrast, changed its alphabet three times over the course of the twentieth century: from Arabic to Latin in the 1920s; from Latin to Cyrillic in the 1930s; and back to Latin in the 1990s.

The inability of the Azeris to congeal into a defined nation may be why the Armenians could destroy them in the war over Karabakh. The Armenians, with their own language and 1,500-year-old alphabet--and with the memory of brilliant ancient and medieval kingdoms and the Turkish genocide always before them--had a fine sense of who they were. The Armenians, everyone in the Caucasus knew, were never going to give up Karabakh in negotiations. No one gives up what has been captured in battle when the area is occupied overwhelmingly by one's own ethnic group and the rest of the population has been violently expelled, with barely a murmur from the Great Powers or the global media.
SOURCE: Robert D. Kaplan, Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus (Vintage, 2000), p. 260

[Gavur]

Rustamyan: Talk in Paris May Be Very Short

10.02.2006 00:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan's lack of will to compromise over core issues constantly hampers progress at Karabakh talks. In the words of Chair of the Parliamentary Standing Commission on Foreign Relations Armen Rustamyan, if Baku wants a settlement, it should remember that the issue can be solved only when its cause is eliminated. «The priority issue of the settlement is determination of the internationally recognized political status of the NKR,» he said.

«We insist on unconditional right of Nagorno Karabakh to self-determination. NK has never been part of independent Azerbaijan, while after the collapse of the USSR in compliance with international legal norms and the Union legislation NK exercised its self-determination right equal to Azerbaijan. This resulted in appearance of two equal sovereign states in the territory of former Azeri SSR,» the MP said. «If Aliyev has his will in Paris and refuses from compromise in this core issue, the talk will be very short,» Rustamyan said, reported De-Facto.

[Gavur]

Baku: Solution of Karabakh Issue Transferred to Plane of US-Russia «Dispute»

09.02.2006 22:43 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ «A strange rule is formed in the dynamics of the Karabakh peacemaking diplomacy. Each calendar year finishes with a splash of activities and pledges of progress soon. This is followed by a lull, mainly conditioned by rotation of the MG leadership and adaptation of the new peacemaking team to the reality. The imitation activation takes place in the middle of the year. Summer is marked with a lull, followed by the final autumn imitation of activities of the OSCE Minsk Group,» supposes editor of a department and political expert of Turan Azeri information agency, political scientist Zafar Guliyev. «As the OSCE MG did not propose any new ideas on settlement and there were no changes in the stands of the parties, any serious breaks in the talks are not expected,» he remarked.

Guliyev also emphasized that «political settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh issue from the moment of cease-fire is in fact transferred to the place of «dispute» between the US (West) and Russia.» «Any attempt to withdraw the negotiation lull and settle the conflict without US and Russia is pregnant with serious threats. First of all to Azerbaijan, as being a loser, Baku is more interested in fair settlement of the problem soon,» the political scientist considers. As of the war, in his opinion, its resumption owing to parties' own efforts does not seem likely. «The conflict is controlled by international organizations and countries – OSCE MG co-chairs (US, Russia and France), who are not interested in reanimation of hostilities in the region. A war in principle could be inspired by the superpowers themselves (US or Russia), however they hardly plan it now. Besides, their competing interests in the region, the potential of influence on the conflict participants and simultaneous participation in settlement of the conflict form some geopolitical balance in favor of keeping the peace,» Guliyev said, reported the Novoye Vremya Baku newspaper.

[Gavur]

Chirac Urges Karabakh Parties To Grasp Peace Chance

Friday, 10 February, 2006



By Anna Willard, Reuters

President Jacques Chirac urged Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday to seize
the chance offered by Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks in France to sketch
out a settlement of the long-running territorial dispute.

Chirac held separate talks with Armenian President Robert Kocharian and
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev at the start of a new effort to break the
deadlock over a mountainous territory roughly half the size of the
island of Cyprus. Diplomats say the talks, set to continue later Friday
in a 14th century chateau southwest of Paris, are the best chance in
years of ending two decades of conflict.

Chirac held successive 45-minute discussions with Kocharian and Aliyev
at his official Elysee Palace residence in central Paris. Neither
visiting leader spoke to waiting reporters. Elysee spokesman Jerome
Bonnafont said Chirac had wished the visiting presidents luck in the
next phase of the talks, which he hoped would open up new prospects for
peace.

"In the current situation there is a chance to lay down the basis of a
settlement," Bonnafont quoted Chirac as telling Kocharian and Aliyev.
"He (Chirac) assured both presidents of the international community's
desire to support peace efforts and the implementation of an accord."

The Armenian and Azeri leaders were later to travel to the Rambouillet
chateau outside Paris for one-on-one discussions on Nagorno-Karabakh
that could run into Saturday. The chateau hosted Kosovo peace talks in
1999.

European diplomats suggest an end to the dispute, the biggest of the
so-called "frozen conflicts" left over from the Soviet Union's messy
disintegration, could be in sight. "This is the most important meeting
in at least five years regarding this conflict," a senior U.S. State
Department official said on Thursday. "We're hopeful."

Armenia's Kocharian said on Wednesday he was cautiously optimistic about
talks which aim to set out the principles of a deal. More detailed
discussions will come later.

French, American and Russian mediators from the Minsk Group of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are also
taking part in the talks at Rambouillet, some 40 kilometers (25 miles)
southwest of Paris. The Minsk Group was set up to help resolve the
dispute. They will meet with the two presidents and then leave them
alone for talks.

Diplomats say any accord is likely to involve Armenian forces
withdrawing from districts they control around Nagorno-Karabakh in
exchange for keeping control of the territory itself pending a
referendum on its status. It might also include foreign peacekeepers
moving into the region.