U.S. to help solve to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Hurriyet

The United States will work harder to help settle a 20-year territorial conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, a U.S. diplomat said Thursday.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, visiting Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Thursday, said it was more important than ever now to resolve the Nagorno-Kaeabakh dispute, after Russia’s war last month with Georgia.

“The recent events in Georgia underscore the importance of a timely resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” said Bryza, who has been the chief U.S. mediator to end the conflict in the region.

“This is well understood in Washington and is the reason for my visit this week,” he was quoted by the AP as saying.

Bryza told a news conference that “the United States strongly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan which has been under the occupation of Armenia since the war broke out between the two states in 1988-1994.

In 1988 when the disputed region’s Armenian-dominated governing council voted to secede from Azerbijan, it set of a series of bloody clashes both between and within the two neighboring countries. Some 10 percent of the Azeri population was displaced.

A ceasefire was signed between the two former Soviet republics in 1994 but the dispute remains unresolved after more than a decade of negotiations.

Gunfire breaks out regularly near Nagorno-Karabakh, and without resolution on the region’s status many fear a new war.

Source: arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=9938051

Posted by admin September 2008

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