Azerbaijan rejects Armenian claims of new Karabakh proposal

Azerbaijan has denied Armenian claims that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presented his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts with a new international plan last month to resolve the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian referred to what was discussed with Medvedev in St. Petersburg as “a new version of the Madrid Principles” of a Karabakh settlement at a news conference in Yerevan with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » July 2010

Azerbaijan rejects Armenian claims of a new Karabakh proposal

Azerbaijan has denied Armenian claims that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presented his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts with a new international plan last month to resolve the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian referred to what was discussed with Medvedev in St. Petersburg as “a new version of the Madrid Principles” of a Karabakh settlement at a news conference in Yerevan with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry dismissed these statements late on Monday, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Armenian Service reported. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » July 2010

US prepares to improve ties with Baku, says regional expert

A regional expert has criticized the US policy of encouraging Turkish-Armenian reconciliation at the cost of angering Azerbaijan. The US now realizes it has made a mistake and is making an effort to improve ties with Baku, says Vladimir Socor, a senior analyst for the Jamestown Foundation. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to visit Baku next week.

The U.S. policy of encouraging Turkish-Armenian reconciliation at the cost of alienating Azerbaijan is a mistake, according to an energy expert who focuses on the region. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » June 2010

Azerbaijan threatens to pull out of Armenia peace talks

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has warned that Baku could withdraw from foreign-backed peace talks with Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the state-run Azertaj news agency reported.

“Armenia in recent months has acted in a way aimed at breaking down the negotiating process. Azerbaijan must seriously consider the prospects of its participation in negotiations… We are considering different options,” Aliyev was quoted as saying Wednesday in an interview with Azerbaijani journalists during a trip this week to Istanbul. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » June 2010

CICA and Azerbaijan

CAVID VELIYEV*

The Conference on Confidence Building Measures in Asia, or CICA, founded in 1992, has not gained a great reputation during the last 18 years, remaining largely in the shadow of alternatives such as The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, and the Collective Security Organization, or CSO. Parallel to the growth of Turkey in the sphere of international relations, the name of CICA began to be heard. It seems that, Turkey will give more importance to Asia and CICA will be the essential part of Turkey’s foreign and Asia policy. Experts who participated at a Turkish-Asian congress in June referred to CICA as “The OSCE of Asia.”

Two definitions were adopted at the event for the solution of problems within the geography of CICA: 1. Security covers not only military, but also economic, energy and environmental issues. 2. The indivisibility of security – the security of all members affects each other and thus, cooperation between member states should be increased. In light of these principles, we can analyze the security relations between CICA and Azerbaijan in two ways: 1. The security problems of Azerbaijan as a CICA member state. 2. The potential of Azerbaijan in the security of CICA. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » June 2010

Disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh elects new parliament

Voters in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh went to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament in a vote the European Union warned it would not recognize as legitimate.

Armenia and Azerbaijan remain officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh, and the dispute is a major source of tension in the strategic South Caucasus region, which is wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.

No country officially recognizes Karabakh as independent. “All polling stations are open. Elections are under way,” Mikael Hajian, the head of Karabakh’s central elections commission, told AFP. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » May 2010

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » May 2010

Ankara mum on claim of thwarted Azeri-Armenia war

Ankara has neither confirmed nor denied claims that Turkey’s intelligence agency prevented an Azerbaijani military operation in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region immediately before Turkey and Armenia signed historic protocols last year.

The National Intelligence Organization, or MİT, has also not released any statement concerning the allegations, which were first published in one of Azerbaijan’s most influential opposition newspapers, Yeni Müsavat. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » May 2010

Armenian nationalist politician closes doors on dialogue

Claims of sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh are threatening to draw Armenia and Azerbaijan into a new conflict at the slightest provocation.

Although international peacemakers are actively working to settle the disputes, political experts are worried that the slightest wrong step could fuel antagonism between the two parties.

Manvel Sargsian, who organized the Karabakh movement against Azerbaijan in Yerevan in 1987, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that Russia was fueling the problem by “supporting the Azeris” in the policy to “remove the Armenians from the region.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » May 2010

The South Caucasus: A common future?

Religious leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan made a call in Baku for a peaceful resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II, stated that problems between states should be solved in accordance with international law and the rights of the nations and emphasized his faith in the common future of the South Caucasus.

Clearly, the current situation in the region – the “frozen” Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, Russia’s decision on the acceptance of independence of Georgian rebel regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, since 2008, the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and, more dramatically, Washington’s “double-standards” toward Azerbaijan – raises a crucial question: “Is there a common future for the south Caucasus states?” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » April 2010

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