Karabagh News‏

JOINT DECLARATION OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS AND DEPUTY MINISTER

OF FRANCE, RUSSIA, AND THE UNITED STATES ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH
ArmInfo
2008-12-04 16:14:00

ArmInfo. The foreign ministers and deputy minister of OSCE Minsk
Group Co-chair countries - France, Russia, and the United States -
have come out with a joint statement on Nagorno- Karabakh.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry press-service quotes them as stating:
"We, the Foreign Ministers and Deputy Minister of the OSCE Minsk
Group's Co- Chair countries - France, Russia, and the United States -
call on the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to build on the
positive momentum established during the meeting of the Presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow on November 2, 2008. The Moscow
Declaration signed that same day opened a new and promising phase in
our shared endeavor to expand peace in the South Caucasus. In that
declaration, the Presidents reaffirm their commitment to advancing a
peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the framework
of the Basic Principles developed by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs in
collaboration with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis
of their proposals advanced last year in Madrid. We call on the parties
to work with the Co-Chairs to finalize the Basic Principles in coming
months, and then begin drafting a comprehensive peace settlement
as outlined by those agreed principles. In keeping with the Moscow
Declaration, we call on the parties to work with the Co-Chairs to
develop confidence-building measures, beginning with pulling back
snipers from the Line of Contact to save lives of innocent civilians
and soldiers as our mediators already proposed to the sides at the
highest level during the last visit mid November. It is urgent for
the parties to work with each other, the Co-Chairs, and the Personal
Representative of the Chairman in Office to stabilize the ceasefire
through this and other measures. We reiterate our firm view that there
is no military solution to the conflict and call on the parties to
recommit to a peaceful resolution".

Karabakh Peace Proposals `Altered'
By Emil Danielyan

The United States, Russia and France have made changes in their proposed
basic principles of a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement in hopes of
facilitating their acceptance by Armenia and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said on Friday.

The so-called Madrid principles were formally put forward by the
mediators in November 2007 and are still being discussed by the
conflicting parties.

`In order to achieve a new phase of the settlement, the foreign
ministers of the countries co-chairing the OSCE's Minsk Group have
presented the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with certain
changes in the Madrid proposals,' Mammadyarov said, according to the
Day.az news service. He did not specify those changes.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry could not be immediately reached for
comment on this.

Mammadyarov spoke to journalists in Helsinki where he was attending an
annual high-level meeting of the OSCE along with his Armenian
counterpart, Eduard Nalbandian. The two men held talks there on
Wednesday and had a brief conversation with Foreign Ministers Sergei
Lavrov of Russia and Bernard Kouchner of France as well as U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried the next day.

In an ensuing joint declaration, Lavrov, Kouchner and Fried urged the
parties to `finalize the Basic Principles in coming months.' The
mediating powers hope that the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will
meet again soon to iron out their remaining differences on the framework
peace accord. Matthew Bryza, Fried's deputy and the Minsk Group's U.S.
co-chair, expressed hope on Thursday that the meeting will take place
`in a couple of weeks.'

Mammadyarov said, however, that Presidents Ilham Aliev and Serzh
Sarkisian will hold the next round of their face-to-face talks only
`next year.' Aliev and Sarkisian pledged to intensify the search for a
mutually acceptable compromise in a declaration which they signed with
Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev after talks outside Moscow on
November 2.

In a speech at the OSCE meeting on Friday, Nalbandian accused Azerbaijan
of `misinterpreting' key provisions of the declaration. He pointed to
Aliev's recent remark that the declaration's reference to a `political
settlement' of the Karabakh conflict does not commit Azerbaijan to
non-use of force.

AZG Armenian Daily #227, 06/12/2008
Armenia-Turkey-Azerbaijan
ECONOMIC COOPERATION POSSIBLE AFTER SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT

Turkish State Minister for Foreign Trade K?Ã?¼r?Å?ad T?Ã?¼zmen announced
in Baku that trade-economic cooperation with Armenia and opening of
Armenian-Turkish border is possible only after rehabilitation of
Azerbaijani territorial integrity and Karabakh conflict settlement.

"In principle, we are not against starting a trade-economic
cooperation with Armenia, as the step will only contribute to the
positive development of the whole region. However, the step will be
taken exclusively on our conditions", the Turkish minister said at
Azerbaijani-Turkish business forum.

Translated by L.H.

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