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KARABAKH OFFICIAL DISMISSES ALIEV OPTIMISM
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 30 2006
A senior Nagorno-Karabakh official brushed aside on Thursday
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev's claims that Armenia and Azerbaijan
moved closer to resolving their long-running territorial dispute
during their latest high-level negotiations.
"We are already approaching the final phase of negotiations," Aliev
told Azerbaijani state television following his talks in the Belarusian
capital Minsk on Tuesday with President Robert Kocharian.
He said they reached agreement on a number of contentious issues that
have precluded the signing of a framework peace accord so far.
The comments raised new hopes for a near-term solution to the Karabakh
conflict. But a senior aide to Arkady Ghukasian, president of the
self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, saw no cause for optimism.
"If President Aliev is saying that the process is moving in a positive
direction, that is quite dangerous in itself," Arman Melikian told
RFE/RL. "To my knowledge, his idea of positive direction is that
Nagorno-Karabakh can not be an independent and sovereign state."
It is not clear if this was also a thinly veiled rebuke addressed to
Armenia's leadership that shared Aliev's positive assessment of the
Minsk talks.
Aliev repeated on Wednesday that he will never recognize Karabakh's
secession from Azerbaijan. Baku is only ready to give the disputed
territory a "maximum degree of self-rule," he said.
Armenian officials insist, however, that under the existing peace plan
proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group, Karabakh's population will have a
chance to legitimize the secession in a referendum to be held years
after the start of an Armenian pullout from occupied territories in
Azerbaijan proper. Unlike official Yerevan, the NKR leadership has
voiced serious misgivings about this formula.
Ghukasian discussed the Karabakh peace process with the Minsk Group's
U.S. co-chair, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza,
during a visit to the United States last week.
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 30 2006
A senior Nagorno-Karabakh official brushed aside on Thursday
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev's claims that Armenia and Azerbaijan
moved closer to resolving their long-running territorial dispute
during their latest high-level negotiations.
"We are already approaching the final phase of negotiations," Aliev
told Azerbaijani state television following his talks in the Belarusian
capital Minsk on Tuesday with President Robert Kocharian.
He said they reached agreement on a number of contentious issues that
have precluded the signing of a framework peace accord so far.
The comments raised new hopes for a near-term solution to the Karabakh
conflict. But a senior aide to Arkady Ghukasian, president of the
self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, saw no cause for optimism.
"If President Aliev is saying that the process is moving in a positive
direction, that is quite dangerous in itself," Arman Melikian told
RFE/RL. "To my knowledge, his idea of positive direction is that
Nagorno-Karabakh can not be an independent and sovereign state."
It is not clear if this was also a thinly veiled rebuke addressed to
Armenia's leadership that shared Aliev's positive assessment of the
Minsk talks.
Aliev repeated on Wednesday that he will never recognize Karabakh's
secession from Azerbaijan. Baku is only ready to give the disputed
territory a "maximum degree of self-rule," he said.
Armenian officials insist, however, that under the existing peace plan
proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group, Karabakh's population will have a
chance to legitimize the secession in a referendum to be held years
after the start of an Armenian pullout from occupied territories in
Azerbaijan proper. Unlike official Yerevan, the NKR leadership has
voiced serious misgivings about this formula.
Ghukasian discussed the Karabakh peace process with the Minsk Group's
U.S. co-chair, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza,
during a visit to the United States last week.