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AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA AGREE TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH PEACE TALKS AFTER THREE-YEAR FREEZE
Jakarta Globe, Indonesia
Nov 6 2013
By Zulfugar Agayev on 4:46 pm November 6, 2013.
Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to hold talks over the disputed territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time since a diplomatic push by
the US, Russia and France ended in deadlock three years ago.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, re-elected last month with 85
percent of the vote, and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sargsyan,
agreed to meet this month, US, French and Russian officials said in
a joint statement e-mailed late yesterday.
The date and place of the summit are still being worked out.
Armenia seized Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave about the size
of the US state of Rhode Island - with more than 140,000 people -
along with seven adjacent districts from Azerbaijan after the Soviet
Union's collapse in 1991.
More than 30,000 people were killed and more than 1 million displaced
before Russia brokered a cease-fire in May 1994.
The US, France and Russia "call upon all sides to exercise restraint
on the ground as well as in their public statements," the diplomats,
who lead the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's
peace efforts for Nagorno- Karabakh, said in the statement. "Military
action, particularly at this moment, can only be seen as an attempt
to damage the peace process."
Azerbaijan, buoyed by the third-largest oil reserves in the former
Soviet Union, has increased military spending almost 30-fold to $3.7
billion in the past decade.
Aliyev has repeatedly threatened to use force to regain the disputed
territory if peace talks fail.
With assistance from Sara Khojoyan.
Photo: Armenian military scouts demonstrate their skill during a
performance to mark the annual anniversary of the formation of the
Armenian Armed Forces reconnaissance troops, some 25 kilometers
outside the capital city of Yerevan on November 5, 2013. Armenia
and Azerbaijan are locked in a festering, decades-long feud over the
breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh, which was seized from Azerbaijan
by Armenia-backed separatists in a war that killed 30,000 people in
the 1990s. (AFP Photo/Karen Minasyan)
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/international/%EF%BB%BF%EF%BB%BFazerbaijan-armenia-agree-to-nagorno-karabakh-peace-talks-after-three-year-freeze/
From: A. Papazian
Jakarta Globe, Indonesia
Nov 6 2013
By Zulfugar Agayev on 4:46 pm November 6, 2013.
Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to hold talks over the disputed territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time since a diplomatic push by
the US, Russia and France ended in deadlock three years ago.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, re-elected last month with 85
percent of the vote, and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sargsyan,
agreed to meet this month, US, French and Russian officials said in
a joint statement e-mailed late yesterday.
The date and place of the summit are still being worked out.
Armenia seized Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave about the size
of the US state of Rhode Island - with more than 140,000 people -
along with seven adjacent districts from Azerbaijan after the Soviet
Union's collapse in 1991.
More than 30,000 people were killed and more than 1 million displaced
before Russia brokered a cease-fire in May 1994.
The US, France and Russia "call upon all sides to exercise restraint
on the ground as well as in their public statements," the diplomats,
who lead the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's
peace efforts for Nagorno- Karabakh, said in the statement. "Military
action, particularly at this moment, can only be seen as an attempt
to damage the peace process."
Azerbaijan, buoyed by the third-largest oil reserves in the former
Soviet Union, has increased military spending almost 30-fold to $3.7
billion in the past decade.
Aliyev has repeatedly threatened to use force to regain the disputed
territory if peace talks fail.
With assistance from Sara Khojoyan.
Photo: Armenian military scouts demonstrate their skill during a
performance to mark the annual anniversary of the formation of the
Armenian Armed Forces reconnaissance troops, some 25 kilometers
outside the capital city of Yerevan on November 5, 2013. Armenia
and Azerbaijan are locked in a festering, decades-long feud over the
breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh, which was seized from Azerbaijan
by Armenia-backed separatists in a war that killed 30,000 people in
the 1990s. (AFP Photo/Karen Minasyan)
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/international/%EF%BB%BF%EF%BB%BFazerbaijan-armenia-agree-to-nagorno-karabakh-peace-talks-after-three-year-freeze/
From: A. Papazian