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BAKU: Elmar Mammadyarov: We Keep All Options On The Table When It Co

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  • BAKU: Elmar Mammadyarov: We Keep All Options On The Table When It Co

    ELMAR MAMMADYAROV: WE KEEP ALL OPTIONS ON THE TABLE WHEN IT COMES TO RESTORING THE FULL SOVEREIGNTY OF AZERBAIJAN

    Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
    April 30 2008

    Baku. Turan Huseynova-APA. "With oil at more than $115 a barrel, and
    the global market on tenterhooks, there is virtual inaction by the
    major consumer countries of the West to resolve a simmering conflict
    less than 20 km from the world's second-longest oil pipeline.

    The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline bringing Caspian oil to the
    Mediterranean and western markets through Azerbaijan, Georgia,
    and Turkey skirts the conflict zone of Nagorno-Karabakh - the
    internationally-recognized Azerbaijani territory currently under
    Armenian occupation," says the article by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
    Elmar Mammadyarov published in European Voice magazine.

    "World energy security, as well as the stability and economic
    prosperity of the Caspian region, now demands that the long-running
    dispute over Karabakh, part of Europe's new neighbourhood, is
    settled. Azerbaijan is determined to see its territorial integrity
    restored in the near future. Over two decades, almost a million of our
    people have been displaced by a foreign occupying force. A resolution
    will not just benefit us. Armenia too will see its international
    isolation ended. Its borders with Azerbaijan will be opened, with
    all the prosperity that will follow lucrative east-west trade and
    transport," the article says.

    "As for Russia, its interests in the region for once converge very well
    with those of the EU. As one of the biggest foreign direct investors
    in our countries, Russian businesses will benefit from stability,
    transparency, and predictability in the South Caucasus.

    Despite phenomenal economic progress in Azerbaijan, our full potential
    - and thus the full potential of the Caspian region - cannot be
    realised while the conflict remains unresolved," the minister writes.

    The minister underlines that the occupied areas are also havens for
    illegal transnational activity, money laundering and drug and arms
    trafficking, which directly affects the citizens of European countries
    as well as the states in the region.

    "On 15 April, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed
    clear support for Azerbaijan's full sovereignty and called for more
    political will to achieve resolution. The NATO alliance at its summit
    in Bucharest earlier this month agreed that peace in Karabakh must
    be realized quickly and within the borders of Azerbaijan. In March,
    the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution reaffirming
    Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and explicitly calling for the
    withdrawal of all Armenian forces," the article writes.

    "Staring down Armenian forces over a shaky ceasefire line inside
    our internationally recognized territory is no longer a workable
    reality. They must leave and the displaced people return.

    Azerbaijan proposes a final offer to Armenia. We support full autonomy
    for Karabakh within Azerbaijan. Our priority is diplomacy, but we
    keep all options on the table when it comes to restoring the full
    sovereignty of Azerbaijan," the article writes.
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