Sarkozy concerned about Karabakh delays

French President Nicolas Sarkozy meets Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, who is on a three-day visit to France, home to one of Europe’s largest Armenian communities. Sarkozy expresses concern about lagging diplomacy between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, his office says

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed concern Wednesday about lagging diplomacy between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, his office said.

Sarkozy laid out his concerns during a lunch meeting in Paris with Armenian President Serge Sarkisian, and urged both sides to make “the necessary efforts and compromises,” a French presidential spokesman said.

The French leader said he was concerned that a diplomatic process initiated about 18 months ago was losing steam, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing government policy. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: International Press, Turkish Press No Comments » March 2010

Armenian parliament’s speaker: Armenia not to debate protocols until Turkish parliament ratifies them

The National Assembly of Armenia (parliament) will not discuss the protocols on normalization of relations with Turkey unless they are ratified by Turkish parliament, Armenian parliament’s Speaker Ovik Abrahamyan said.

“Attempts to link Karabakh conflict settlement process with normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations are ungrounded and unacceptable,” Hovik Abrahamyan said when commenting on yesterday’s statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: International Press, Turkish Press No Comments » December 2009

Sarkozy-Aliyev meeting discusses energy, Karabakh

French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev in Paris on Wednesday.

In a written statement, the French presidency said the leaders had agreed to expand bilateral relations and trade volume between the two countries and expressed their wish to develop a “strategic partnership.”

France said it wants to develop economic relations with Azerbaijan, including those in the field of energy, such as oil and natural gas. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: International Press, Turkish Press No Comments » December 2009

Torrent of bitterness on the Turkey-Armenia border

There is more than the River Araxe separating the villages of Halikislak in Turkey and Bagaran in Armenia — a sealed border and a torrent of animosity divides their countries.

The 300 people in Halikislak and 700 in Bagaran are never allowed to meet. But hopes of an end to the isolation have been raised on both sides by an accord announced this week by the governments of Armenia and Turkey to move to end their century of hostility.

Memories of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire run deep between the countries even though the villages either side of the river have much in common. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: International Press No Comments » April 2009

Third Armenian-Azerbaijani public peacekeeping forum to be held in Vienna

International Alert organization is organizing the third Armenian-Azerbaijani public peacekeeping forum for support of the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict to be held in Vienna on March 24-27.

 The topic of the forum “Security: Challenges and opportunities, and mechanisms to build trust”. The aim of the forum is to create an area of a dialogue between experts and public representatives of all conflict parties on the issues of the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Azerbaijan Press, International Press No Comments » March 2009

Ethnic War in the Caucasus Finds New Depths of Carnage

By Francis X.Clines, New York Times, March 8 1992

As Hadjayev Hakhverdy washes the corpses of gunshot children and mutiliated adults here at the valley mosque, all the despair and defeat of Azerbaijan seems at hand in his ministrations after four years of undeclared war with Armenia over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“I have cleaned 200 since Feb. 26,” said the mosque worker, aghast as he wrapped for burial another decapitated male corpse fresh from the war between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, which appears to be setting new standards for carnage and vendetta. “Some are so broken, but we must bury them.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: International Press, Khojaly No Comments » February 2009

Editorial: Echoes of an oil boom

Azerbaijan: Where Russia, Iran and the West meet
Opinion: Editorials & Letters: Story

Vice President Dick Cheney visited Azerbaijan last October, and the consul general for Azerbaijan’s new consulate in Los Angeles visited Eugene earlier this month. The two events are connected: Both are a result of the oil boom in the Caspian Sea region, which has Azerbaijan at its center.

Azerbaijan is friendly toward the United States, and the United States needs all the friends it can get in that part of the world. As Cheney found, however, Azerbaijan’s friendliness extends only so far.

Cheney hoped to secure a commitment for a pipeline that would transport natural gas from the Caspian region to the West, bypassing Russia. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, wary of alienating neighboring Russia, would make no such commitment. Cheney responded by skipping a reception in his honor. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: International Press No Comments » February 2009

Azerbaijan Seeking Justice For Khojaly Massacre

The Azerbaijani government said it is still trying to bring to justice those responsible for the events of the Khojaly massacre, as the 17th anniversary was marked on February 26.

Khojaly is a small Azerbaijani town in which hundreds of people, including many civilians, were killed by ethnic Armenian forces on February 25-26 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1992.

Azerbaijani Deputy Military Prosecutor Ilham Mammadov told RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service that the arrest of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic last summer “gave hope that the international justice mechanisms could also be used in respect to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: International Press, Khojaly No Comments » February 2009

The Black Sea ambitions of Armenia

Caucasian Review of International Affairs

Between 1 November 2008 and 30 April 2009, Armenia holds the rotating presidency of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), a regional economic body. One of the many groups, clubs and forums operating on Europe’s eastern fringes, BSEC rarely gets a high profile, unlike more political-security organisations such as NATO or the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation. However, BSEC should not be dismissed out of hand – its failures and achievements mirror the wider situation in the region, and it may yet prove a useful tool in stabilising the Caucasus. The timing of the Armenian chairmanship – in the middle of an ongoing push to settle the Karabakh conflict, and whilst the region struggles to cope with the financial crisis – could have a decisive effect.

To be clear, the impact of BSEC is limited by its nature. The organisation, which is the only sub-regional organisation to unite all the states of the wider Black Sea region, aims to turn its region “into one of peace, stability and prosperity” and to promote good-neighbourliness and mutual respect. However, its scope is restricted to trade, transport and economic co-operation, notwithstanding some limited work on combating crime and trans-border smuggling. In particular, BSEC acknowledges the oil and gas riches of the region (specifically, Caspian energy flows from and through Azerbaijan), and views this hydrocarbon wealth as a priority area of its activities, especially when it comes to dealing with the EU.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: International Press No Comments » December 2008

Progress made on Karabakh, says envoy

Reuters

Azerbaijan and Armenia are showing a new resolve to settle a conflict that could threaten oil exports to the West if it flares again into fighting, an international mediator said.

The ex-Soviet neighbors fought a war in the early 1990s over the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Their troops still fight skirmishes there despite a ceasefire, and attempts to broker a peace deal have repeatedly foundered.

But the outlook for an agreement is now looking more positive because of a new rapport between the two countries’ presidents, said Matthew Bryza, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary State and one of three international mediators in the conflict.

“We can say there is progress,” Bryza told Reuters on late Thursday on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, in the Finnish capital. Armenian President Serge Sarkisian and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev have held two rounds of talks in the last six months and their foreign ministers met in Helsinki.

Positive mood
“The mood between presidents Aliyev and Sarkisian has improved, significantly,” said Bryza. “They both respect each other, number one, and are beginning to trust each other, number two. And, number three, they have expressed a willingness to be constructive, meaning take into account what the other side needs to reach a deal.”

“Both presidents said ‘OK, I think I’m ready to move ahead. Let’s try to finalise these basic principles (for a peace deal). I’m ready to work with my counterpart’.” He said there was still a lot of work to be done before fundamental differences between the two sides on the future of Nagorno-Karabakh could be bridged. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Since the fighting it — along with surrounding Azeri districts — have been under the de facto control of ethnic Armenian separatists, with support from Armenia. The fighting killed about 35,000 people and displaced around one million civilians, with most of them still unable to return to their homes nearly two decades later.

Source: arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=10518071

Posted by admin Posted in: International Press No Comments » December 2008

« Previous Entries