Azeri leader sets term for Armenian border opening

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Monday that his country would open all its borders with Armenia if the government in Yerevan accepts the revised Madrid criteria and starts to withdraw its forces from Azerbaijani territory.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Aliyev said talks had been held for many years to arrive at a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The press conference followed a one-on-one meeting and talks between the Turkish and Azerbaijani delegations at Aliyev’s presidential Zagulba Palace.

Azerbaijan has been making efforts for a fair and peaceful solution in accordance with international law, Aliyev said, adding that his country approved the revised Madrid criteria on the matter with few minor exceptions and expects Armenia to act the same way.

“Armenia should express its stance on the matter,” Aliyev said, noting that the country would either display a positive stance, bringing the parties closer to a settlement, or it would respond negatively, destroying the negotiation process.

At a Jan. 25 meeting in Sochi, Russia, with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Aliyev and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian reached verbal agreement on the wording of the preamble of the most recently revised version of the Madrid Principles, which constitute the outline of a more comprehensive Karabakh peace agreement.

The original Madrid Principles were presented to the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ministerial conference in Madrid in November 2007. These were in turn a revised version of the Basic Principles unveiled by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen in early summer 2006 and posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.

The principles included the phased withdrawal of Armenian troops from five Azerbaijani territories bordering Nagorno-Karabakh, with separate special arrangements for two additional districts of Azerbaijan – Kelbacar and Lachin – that separate Nagorno-Karabakh from the Republic of Armenia.

The phased withdrawal would be followed by the demilitarization, demining and reconstruction of those territories; the deployment of an international peacekeeping force; the return to those Azerbaijani districts of members of the population who were forced to flee during hostilities in 1992-93; and, finally, at some unspecified future date, a referendum or popular vote on the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Aliyev said at the Monday press conference that his country would open its borders with Armenia and take peace and security measures in the region if Yerevan ends its occupation of Azerbaijani territory.

Asked whether Azerbaijan would join the Nabucco project, Aliyev said Azerbaijani natural gas is a great source for pipelines in the region and added that his country could participate in such a project under the right conditions.

Source:Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=azerbaijan-to-open-borders-if-armenia-stops-invasion-2010-05-18

Posted by admin May 2010

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