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The News International, Pakistan
April 26 2013
Nagorny Karabakh conflict
Saturday, April 27, 2013
PARIS: The international community must take Azerbaijan's threats of
regaining the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh seriously and
condemn Baku's ongoing arms-buying spree, the breakaway territory's
leader said on Friday.
Seized by ethnic Armenian separatists in a war in the early 1990s that
left more than 30,000 dead, Karabakh is at the heart of long-simmering
tensions between ex-Soviet neighbours Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Violence continues to flare on its borders, with a least six soldiers
killed so far this year, and a new conflict would threaten to draw in
regional powers like Armenia's ally Russia, Azerbaijan's ally Turkey
and Iran.
Baku has vowed to retake control of the small mountainous region,
whose self-declared independence has not been recognised by any state,
including Armenia. In France for a three-day visit, the region's
president Bako Sahakian told AFP he saw no signs of a breakthrough in
peace talks and warned that Azerbaijan was stoking tensions with
enormous arms purchases.
`We can only be worried by the policy of militarisation and
over-arming undertaken by Azerbaijan, because there are also clear and
explicit threats against our country,' he said. `The international
community must react to this situation,' he said.
Fuelled by the oil-rich country's energy exports, Azerbaijan's defence
spending has skyrocketed in recent years, with this year's military
budget at $1.9 billion (1.4 billion euros) - almost 15 percent of the
entire state budget.
Officials from Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan have met
repeatedly for peace talks since a ceasefire was signed in 1994, with
negotiations mediated by the Minsk Group chaired by France, Russia and
the United States. Sahakian, a former soldier and security service
chief who was elected to a second term last year, said that while
talks have failed to result in a peace deal, they have at least been
useful in preventing another war.
But he said the negotiations should be expanded to include
representatives of the authorities in Karabakh, which is home to about
150,000 people. `To have real and serious progress in the negotiating
process the format must be re-established to have participants from
Nagorny Karabakh,' Sahakian said. He said he believed a negotiated
solution was possible and insisted authorities in Karabakh would not
be the ones to start a new war.
`It is a complex conflict, you cannot expect a solution from one day
to the next. But there is no alternative to peace and dialogue,'
Sahakian said. Experts have warned that a fresh conflict would be even
more devastating than the 1992-1994 Karabakh war - one of the
bloodiest of the many regional conflicts that followed the collapse of
the Soviet Union.
Karabakh survives thanks largely to financial and military backing
from Armenia and supporters in the widespread Armenian diaspora,
including in France. Sahakian said he was hoping to drum up investment
in France in the hopes of boosting the region's small economy, which
relies mainly on agriculture, manufacturing and some mining. He said
he also expected progress soon on one of the region's key efforts -
resuming commercial flights into a revamped airport in the capital,
Stepanakert.
Karabakh is deeply isolated, accessible only by an eight-hour drive
from the Armenian capital Yerevan along a winding mountain road that
is often unusable in winter. Sahakian said Karabakh was `not very far'
from being prepared to restore flights into the region and that he
hoped they could resume this year.
The Armenians have been under diplomatic pressure to move carefully on
restoring flights, after Azerbaijan warned it will not tolerate planes
bound for Karabakh violating its airspace. `This initiative must not
be linked with resolving the conflict or be seen in this context,'
Sahakian said.
`Civil flights that will be established between Yerevan and
Stepanakert are aimed simply at helping us emerge from the isolation
that has been imposed on us.'
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-173832-Nagorny-Karabakh-conflict
April 26 2013
Nagorny Karabakh conflict
Saturday, April 27, 2013
PARIS: The international community must take Azerbaijan's threats of
regaining the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh seriously and
condemn Baku's ongoing arms-buying spree, the breakaway territory's
leader said on Friday.
Seized by ethnic Armenian separatists in a war in the early 1990s that
left more than 30,000 dead, Karabakh is at the heart of long-simmering
tensions between ex-Soviet neighbours Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Violence continues to flare on its borders, with a least six soldiers
killed so far this year, and a new conflict would threaten to draw in
regional powers like Armenia's ally Russia, Azerbaijan's ally Turkey
and Iran.
Baku has vowed to retake control of the small mountainous region,
whose self-declared independence has not been recognised by any state,
including Armenia. In France for a three-day visit, the region's
president Bako Sahakian told AFP he saw no signs of a breakthrough in
peace talks and warned that Azerbaijan was stoking tensions with
enormous arms purchases.
`We can only be worried by the policy of militarisation and
over-arming undertaken by Azerbaijan, because there are also clear and
explicit threats against our country,' he said. `The international
community must react to this situation,' he said.
Fuelled by the oil-rich country's energy exports, Azerbaijan's defence
spending has skyrocketed in recent years, with this year's military
budget at $1.9 billion (1.4 billion euros) - almost 15 percent of the
entire state budget.
Officials from Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan have met
repeatedly for peace talks since a ceasefire was signed in 1994, with
negotiations mediated by the Minsk Group chaired by France, Russia and
the United States. Sahakian, a former soldier and security service
chief who was elected to a second term last year, said that while
talks have failed to result in a peace deal, they have at least been
useful in preventing another war.
But he said the negotiations should be expanded to include
representatives of the authorities in Karabakh, which is home to about
150,000 people. `To have real and serious progress in the negotiating
process the format must be re-established to have participants from
Nagorny Karabakh,' Sahakian said. He said he believed a negotiated
solution was possible and insisted authorities in Karabakh would not
be the ones to start a new war.
`It is a complex conflict, you cannot expect a solution from one day
to the next. But there is no alternative to peace and dialogue,'
Sahakian said. Experts have warned that a fresh conflict would be even
more devastating than the 1992-1994 Karabakh war - one of the
bloodiest of the many regional conflicts that followed the collapse of
the Soviet Union.
Karabakh survives thanks largely to financial and military backing
from Armenia and supporters in the widespread Armenian diaspora,
including in France. Sahakian said he was hoping to drum up investment
in France in the hopes of boosting the region's small economy, which
relies mainly on agriculture, manufacturing and some mining. He said
he also expected progress soon on one of the region's key efforts -
resuming commercial flights into a revamped airport in the capital,
Stepanakert.
Karabakh is deeply isolated, accessible only by an eight-hour drive
from the Armenian capital Yerevan along a winding mountain road that
is often unusable in winter. Sahakian said Karabakh was `not very far'
from being prepared to restore flights into the region and that he
hoped they could resume this year.
The Armenians have been under diplomatic pressure to move carefully on
restoring flights, after Azerbaijan warned it will not tolerate planes
bound for Karabakh violating its airspace. `This initiative must not
be linked with resolving the conflict or be seen in this context,'
Sahakian said.
`Civil flights that will be established between Yerevan and
Stepanakert are aimed simply at helping us emerge from the isolation
that has been imposed on us.'
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-173832-Nagorny-Karabakh-conflict