These were committed by Armenian military with special mercilessness and inconceivable barbarism. 2nd battalion of 366th regiment under the command of Major Oganyan Seyran Mushegovich, third battalion under the command of Yevgeniy Nabokhin, staff chief of 1st battalion Chitchyan Valeriy and more than 50 officers and ensigns, serving in regiment took part in the attack. (”From the investigation materials concerning Khojaly occupation”).

A part of town residents, attempted to flee, were killed by Armenians, waiting in the ambushes. According to the Russian remedial centre Memorial, 200 corpses had been brought from Khojali to Agdam for 4 days, tens of humiliation facts have been discovered on them. 181 corpses (130 men and 51 women) were made forensic medical examination in Aghdam. According to the examination 151 persons dead in result of bullet wound, 20 - missile wound, 10 people were killed with blunt instrument. Remedial centre discovered fact of scalping of alive man.

The Khojaly genocide is one of the most terrible and tragic pages of Azerbaijan history. Azerbaijan’s national leader Heydar Aliyev said in his speech addressed to the nation of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Khojaly genocide: “This merciless and cruel genocide was the most dreadful mass terror act in the history of humankind.”

Azerbaijan has endured ethnic cleansing and genocide by Armenian nationalist-chauvinists for 200 years. The people of Azerbaijan were deported from their historical lands and became refugees and internally displaced persons because of Armenian occupation. Azerbaijanis were also forced from their historical lands during the Soviet period. 150,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from Armenia and placed in the Kur-Araz plain from1948-1953. 250,000 Azerbaijanis were forced from their historical territories in 1988 and Armenia became a mono-ethnical state. The Nagorno-Karabakh events, which began in 1988 along with continuous efforts to implement the Armenian desire of building a state from sea to sea, led to the destruction of towns and villages, murder of thousands of innocent people, as well as the exile of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from their native lands.

The Armenian government wanted to annex Nagorno-Karabakh despite international legal norms and demonstrates their readiness to resort to any kind of crime and barbarism for the sake of its ideology. The Khojaly genocide - the tragedy of the 20th century - was a result of this aggressive and criminal policy. This tragedy, which took place in the 20th century was one of the most serious crimes not only against the people of Azerbaijan, but humanity as a whole. The Khojaly genocide is comparable to the genocides in Khatin, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Songmi.

What was Armenians’ purpose in Khojaly? On one hand that was the liquidation of the strategic hindrance in the form of Azerbaijani residents of the mountainous part of Nagorno-Karabakh. On the other hand that was the razing of Khojaly to the ground. Because Khojaly was an inhabited place, which reflected the history and traditions of Azerbaijan since the ancient times. This distinct culture is classified as Khojaly-Gadabay in the Azerbaijani history. Cromlechs, dolmens, Cyclops, tumuluses of Khojaly, as well as different housing wares are the patterns of material culture that reflect the dynamics of social development. The destruction of all these material culture monuments and Khojaly graveyard - one of the most ancient cemeteries in history - after the Armenian occupation is are obvious examples of Armenian barbarism and aggression against the world culture.

The city was wiped off the face of the earth. Fifty-six people were brutally killed. They had been burned alive and beheaded. Their faces had been skinned. Even the eyes of infants had been gorged out, while the bellies of pregnant women had been sliced upon with bayonets.

Armenians desecrated the corpses. The events that took place during the Khojali tragedy can be called nothing less than unhuman and horrific. 

Antiga, a Khojali resident, was burned alive because she refused to say the area “was part of Great Armenia.” Sariyya Talibova witnessed these horrorific events: “They took us to an Armenian cemetery … They sacrificed four Mehseti Turks and three Azerbaijanis over the graves of Armenian fighters …  Later they brought two Azerbaijanis to the cemetery wearing an army uniform. They pulled their eyes out of their heads with a sharp iron rod.”

Forbidden bullets of 5.45 caliber and chemical weapons were used in Khojaly during the attack. All these facts prove that Armenia committed genocide against civil people, violating Geneva Convention protocol concerning war rules.

Khojaly genocide terrified journalists and publicists of Russia, Georgia, Great Britain, France, Germany, and the U.S.

Khojaly refugees write in their address to the UN, the European Union, the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe: It is already more than 10 years as we, persons become refugees, appeal with heavy art and large hope to peaceful nations of the world, international organizations. We ask you not to remain indifferent about disaster, happened with us in result of Armenian aggression. We believe that authoritative international organizations like the UN, EU and OSCE, peaceful states will take measures against aggression and tyranny of Armenia.

International conventions, laws, passed in the world, criticize genocides like Khojaly tragedy and call them inadmissible. Azerbaijan nation has all legal base to bring suit against the Armenian Republic in the International court of the UN, guiding by convention “Warning and punishment of genocide crime”. The world must know that this crime was directed not only against Azerbaijani nation, but also whole civilized world, mankind. Persons like Seyran Ohanyan, Serj Sarkisyan (Sargsyan), as well as Robert Kocharyan, holding high state posts at present, and others must answer before international court.

The crime should not remain without punishment. Armenian military-political aggression must be condemned by world community. International organizations, parliaments of the world states must give political-legal appraisal of Khojaly genocide - military crime, committed by the Armenian Republic in the Azerbaijan territories.

Source: Trend News 
URL: www.today.az/news/society/62592.html 

“The people faced with massacre in Khojaly were our Muslim brothers and sisters”, member of the Iranian parliament from Ardabil and head of the Azerbaijani-Iranian inter-parliamentary friendship group Seyid Kazim Musavi said.

The parliamentarian said they condemned Armenia for Khojaly massacre and called it an aggressor. He said those, who killed children, old people, were enemy and murderer of the humanity.

Musavi said ceremonies for commemoration of Khojaly massacre were held in Iran, particularly in the regions populated by Azerbaijanis. He said a group of Iranian parliamentarians would visit Azerbaijani embassy on February 25 to express condolences to Azerbaijan and to condemn Armenians.

Musavi highly appreciated the visit of Azerbaijani parliament speaker Ogtay Asadov to Iran and his meetings with the Iranian president, parliament speaker and secretary of national security. He welcomed Asadov’s visit to Tebriz.

He said Asadov’s visit to Iran meant the development of sincere relations in the region, particularly between Azerbaijan and Iran.

The parliamentarian said Iran always supported peace, stability and was continuing its policy in this direction.

“Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan, I have always said this. Iran borders on the whole Azerbaijan, not Karabakh. We are ready to help Azerbaijan in the solution to Karabakh conflict. This is the official position of our parliamentarians and the state. We support justice. It is clear that Azerbaijan is right in this issue. Any country attacking and declaring war to Azerbaijan, is considered to declare war to Iran. There are relevant security contracts between the two countries,” he said.

The parliamentarian also commented on the sanctions imposed on Iran.

“As you know, the US, Israel and most of the western countries dislike Iran. Their pressures on Iran because of uranium enrichment and construction of atomic station are groundless. The US and its allies have never wanted Iran, especially Muslims to achieve progress. We have always had problem with them in connection with this. Maybe they will increase pressures on Iran. But we will continue our work in the atmosphere of peace and stability, we are not afraid of anybody,” he said.

Touching on the post-election events and happenings on the day of Ashura in Iran, Musavi said the US, Israel and some western countries had a hand in them. He said the situation is stable in Iran.

“Our supreme leader appealed to the people and stated that the English are villain, they do not want the development of Iranian people. Our leader determines our foreign policy. He supports bilateral relations with all countries, except the criminals” he said.

Musavi said the reports that protest action was held outside Azerbaijani consulate in Tabriz and Azerbaijan’s flag was burnt were groundless.

“Though the action was held, the flag was not burnt. Those who say this want to stir up discord between the two countries. Such rumors should be prevented in Azerbaijan, too. Our enemies do this,” he said.

Source: News.az
URL: www.news.az/articles/9942

News.Az interviews Dr Adil Baguirov, managing director and co-founder of the US Azeris Network (USAN).

What is USAN doing about the United States census in 2010?

The US Azeris Network (USAN), as well as our sister organization the US Turkic Network (USTN), became the first-ever not only Azerbaijani-American, but also Turkic-American organizations to be recognized officially as partners by the US Census Bureau for the 2010 Census. We immediately started raising awareness and promoting this partnership as well as the need to participate in the Census among the Azerbaijani-American and Turkic-American community. We will continue this in the next few months before and after the census starts.

US First Assistant Secretary of State James Steinberg thinks that the Karabakh conflict can be settled on the basis of two principles of international law. He said during his recent visit to Yerevan: “I believe that the simultaneous use of the right of nations to self-determination and territorial integrity is possible.” Doesn’t this contradict Washington’s official position on the recognition of Karabakh as Azerbaijani land?

There is no problem between the two principles, and that’s why Azerbaijan agrees to resolve the occupation of Karabakh and other lands of Azerbaijan based on the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, which stipulated both of the principles, since they don’t interfere with each other; indeed, the principle of territorial integrity trumps the principle of self-determination. More specifically, there is a principle of international law uti possidetis juris, which in the opinion of such eminent international law experts as Prof. Malcolm Shaw applies directly to all post-Soviet countries, specifically to Armenia and Azerbaijan. This principle postulates that all newly formed sovereign states should have the same borders that they had before. Additional in-depth research and commentary have been provided by top Azerbaijani legal experts, such as Dr Vugar Seidov, Dr Fuad Ahundov, Tofiq Musayev (LL.M) and M. Mammadov (LL.M).

There is simply no doubt that international law is very clear on this issue, and it’s on Azerbaijan’s side. Karabakh, whether Mountainous, or Lowland, along with Kerki (an exclave of Naxcivan), the two exclaves of the Gazakh region of Azerbaijan and its villages that are also occupied by Armenia, are all de jure part of Azerbaijan, have been recognized as such by the UN, and must be returned to Azerbaijan.

Leaders of the US Azerbaijani diaspora recently met a group of New York senators to discuss Azerbaijan. It is the third year that USAN has been involved in such a meeting. Is it possible to talk of real interest of US law-makers, especially Democrats, in the problems of Azerbaijan despite the strong Armenian resistance?

I would view the importance of such regular meetings as an affirmation of our community’s growing political activism, and as a consequence, the inevitable noting of this by the members of Congress, who see us more and more at various venues and are greatly impressed by the depth and quality of our arguments, by the education that we provide to them on the issues that we consider very important for us, as well as for regional and international peace and the prestige and moral standing of the United States. But the number one rule for any member of Congress is that “all politics is local”, hence, if the Armenian community is more active (for any reason) driving its point across, then members of Congress will be more prone to listen to it.

It’s somewhat understandable that a member of Congress would have a pro-Armenian and anti-Azerbaijani position if he/she is visited more often by the Armenian community or receives thousands of dollars in political contributions from the Armenian lobby. Unfortunately, every single one of such members of Congress are affected by this scourge of the political process - Armenian special interest groups, a lobby, that buys access and forces members to take a certain position.

US Congressmen are planning to discuss the resolution on the “Armenian genocide” in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. Will this resolution be adopted and how may it influence the recognition of the “genocide” by the White House?

There is a possibility, considering that all the Democratic leadership of Congress - Speaker Pelosi, Con. Berman, Sen. Reid, Sen. Durbin, Sen. Menendez, Sen. Kerry - are on the record strongly supporting the Armenian community in general, and all of their agenda in particular. At the same time, elections in November are expected to create a big change, with Republicans retaking control of many seats in the US Senate and US House (the two chambers of the US Congress), and American voters get angry when Congress is preoccupied with foreign history instead of creating jobs and improving the economy. Obviously, considering the economic weight of Turkey, and the huge bilateral trade between the US and Turkey (Turkey is the United States’ 39th largest goods trading partner), bilateral trade has been steadily growing over the last 15 years. US-Turkey two way goods trade totalled $14.6 billion in 2008 and the US would not want that burgeoning trade to come to a standstill.

But there is also something interesting happening this election cycle in US politics, just like in 2008. Back then, an Armenian candidate, Dr Jack Kevorkian, affectionately known as Doctor Death, decided to challenge Congressman Knollenberg and take his seat in the House of Representatives, despite the fact that Rep. Knollenberg was a co-chairman of the Armenian Caucus and a big friend of the Armenian community. In this interesting twist of misfortune, both cancelled out each others’ efforts and lost the elections to another candidate, Gary Peters. Also, back then the Armenian community supported and endorsed the then presidential candidate, Sen. Obama during the primary in California and other states, but Sen. Obama actually lost those primaries to Sen. Clinton, in spite of the support from the Armenian community. It shows that even in California the 500,000-strong Armenian community cannot “move elections” unless they are local elections centering on Glendale.

This year, the same thing has happened - in the special elections in Massachusetts, the Armenian community supported Democrat Martha Coakley, whilst the Azerbaijani community, led by the efforts of the USAN “2008 Outstanding Leadership Award” recipient Dr John Vafai, who spearheaded a political initiative “Azerbaijanis for Scott Brown”, supported the underdog, Republican nominee Scott Brown. Mr Brown won and was sworn in last week. Likewise, this year, despite all the dedicated support and service that Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) has given to the Armenian community, they have officially endorsed his opponent, Jerry Tarkanian, who will try to send Sen. Reid into retirement.

This is reminiscent of 1996, when the Armenian community saw the polls and realized that their favourite and officially endorsed Sen. Dole was inevitably losing the presidential race to Bill Clinton, they switched their support within one month of the elections. Of course, Bill Clinton was easily re-elected for a second term. Later, during the first term of President George W. Bush the Armenian community also tried to show its relevance and alleged that they supported Bush’s candidacy, but Bush’s trusted advisor and “architect” Karl Rove quickly shot down that feeble allegation to the public embarrassment of the Armenian lobby. The Armenian community “retaliated” by supporting Sen. Kerry in 2004, but of course their support once again proved to be non-essential, and President Bush won.

All this shows how ungrateful and not-so-powerful the Armenian lobby really is, and how the combined Turkic-American community and our friends can stop its destructive activity which counters US national interests and regional stability.

Source: News.Az by Aliyah Fridman
URL: news.az/articles/8703

According to diplomatic sources, Gül also expressed Ankara’s feeling of unease with the Armenian Constitutional Court ruling containing preconditions and restrictive provisions on the normalization protocols between Armenia and Turkey. Gül urged Medvedev to play a ‘more active role’ with Yerevan in order to keep the normalization process on track.

“We hope no one wants to risk the protocols. Peace and stability in the Caucasus is desirable for everyone,” Gül said.  “We need a clarification as to whether the court ruling will shadow or restrict the protocols.”

Medvedev in reply said, “We appreciate Turkey’s peace efforts for the Caucasus. We closely follow the parties [Azerbaijan and Armenia]. No one has the right to derail the protocols.” The Russian President promised to be in close touch with Yerevan and continue pushing the normalization efforts.

Having discussed the main common interests and cooperation opportunities, Medvedev confirmed his upcoming visit was set for the second week of May when he will co-chair the first meeting of the bilateral cooperation council.

The Russian Embassy to Ankara in a written-statement said, “This visit will play a key role for Turkish-Russian relations in the future.”

Source:Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=gul-urges-medvedev-to-push-peace-in-karabakh-2010-01-31

The foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia held an impromptu meeting Thursday at an international conference in London during which Turkey relayed its concerns about the prospects of the two countries’ protocols. 

The informal meeting marked the first face-to-face talk since an Armenian court ruling drew strong criticism from Ankara, jeopardizing the fate of the protocols that seek to normalize diplomatic relations between the two old foes.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu once more expressed Turkey’s concerns over the court ruling that refers to the 1915 killings of Armenians as “genocide” and makes reference to eastern Turkey as “Western Armenia,” diplomatic sources said. “The two sides had the chance to review their well-known positions. There is no change,” said one diplomat.

Davutoğlu and Nalbandian agreed to meet on the sidelines of a security conference next week in Munich, Germany, for more bilateral talks, sources said. They also said that meanwhile Ankara was urging third parties to prompt Armenia to indicate that the protocols’ content will not be contradicted.

The two foreign ministers held a telephone conversation last week with Ankara saying the court decision was against the spirit of the accords on which the sides already reached an agreement.

Davutoğlu held a 15-minute meeting Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as soon as he landed in London, with their talks focusing entirely on the Armenian court’s ruling, Turkish diplomats told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. Ankara communicated its concerns to Washington and asked that these concerns be addressed. Clinton also met seperately t with Nalbandian on Thursday.

On the plane from Istanbul to London, Davutoğlu said Turkey signed the protocols with Armenia to normalize Turkish-Armenian ties, help Turks and Armenians eliminate their prejudices and maintain the comprehensive peace in the Caucasus. “We do not want those visions to be blurred. The court ruling is restrictive,” he said.

Turkey is now working on a legal text that proves the court ruling’s non-conformity with the protocols that will be sent to Switzerland, which brokered the talks between the two countries, and to the co-chairman of the Minsk Group, which is leading the Karabakh talks.

“Our views should be heard and our concerns should be removed,” said Davutoğlu.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday the deal between Ankara and Yerevan to open their shared border and establish diplomatic relations was under the growing threat of collapse. 

Armenia is pushing for rapid ratification of the protocols, signed in October, while Turkey has a longer time frame in mind, said the report. On Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev added concern about the deal by saying he was confident Turkey would not ratify the agreement until Armenia has returned Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani territory occupied by Yerevan.

“There is a common understanding in the region that there should be a first step by Armenia to start the liberation of the occupied territories,” Aliyev said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He said he was “fully satisfied” with Turkey’s understanding of the issue, despite harshly criticizing Turkey’s handling of it in the past.

“If the two issues are disconnected, then probably Armenia will freeze negotiations with Azerbaijan [over Nagorno Karabakh],” said Aliyev, adding that he believed economic pressure was one of the main incentives for Armenia to come to the table. The leader has warned previously that such an outcome could lead to renewed war.

Davutoğlu will meet with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, on Friday at the London conference. Diplomatic sources said Ankara would inform Baku of its current position after the Armenian court ruling.

The Turkish foreign minister was scheduled to meet with Clinton again Thursday as the Daily News went to print. Davutoğlu also held talks with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, his Kazakh counterpart and European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=davutoglu-holds-talks-with-armenias-nalbandian-2010-01-28

Ankara, which last year agreed with Yerevan to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their border, insists on seeing improvement towards a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in parallel with its efforts to normalize relations with Yerevan. Ankara argues that partial normalization in the Caucasus cannot be sustainable as long as the parties fail to exert efforts for complete normalization.

Three co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) — France, Russia and the United States — met with Aliyev in Baku on Thursday and with Sarksyan in Yerevan on Wednesday. President Sarksyan was given an updated version of the 2007 Madrid document, which includes the latest changes of the conflict settlement’s basic principles. The same document was given to the Azerbaijani president in December 2009.

“I want to say that Aliyev highly appreciates Russia’s role in this process, and we expect progress [in talks would be reached] to resolve the problem, including at the upcoming meeting in Sochi,” Sergei Naryshkin, head of the administration of the Russian president, was quoted as saying on Saturday after talks with Aliyev during a working visit to Baku.

Yet, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, speaking at a press conference in Yerevan on Thursday, has already downplayed expectations, saying he didn’t expect a turning point in the negotiations over the solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2010. 
 
Source: Today’s Zaman
URL: www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-199543-eyes-on-sochi-for-progress-on-nagorno-karabakh.html

“The negotiations were very useful; the parties viewed the concrete proposals of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] co-chairs,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the meeting. “There is a common understanding and all this has been covered in the preamble of the documents.”

The meeting was between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his Armenian counterpart, Serge Sarkisian, and their Russian host, Dmitry Medvedev.

According to Lavrov, the most important result of the negotiations was that the parties would prepare their formulas for the uncoordinated issues, which would then be included in the document. “The parties had open talks and we are sure that it will help the co-chairs in their future activity. The negotiations were useful and the presidents agreed to continue the dialogue,” the Azeri Press Agency, or APA, quoted him as saying.

Peaceful solution

Lavrov said Aliyev and Sarkisian continued the negotiations in the previous formats, with the dialogue strengthened by the efforts of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to find a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been occupied by Armenian forces since the end of a six-year conflict that left about 30,000 people dead and 1 million displaced before a truce was reached in 1994. The region’s unilateral independence is not recognized by the international community. The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been negotiating on the issue under the OSCE, but little progress has been made in the talks.

The Karabakh conflict is also a core issue affecting the recent normalization efforts between Turkey and Armenia, with the Ankara government saying any reopening of the countries’ border crossing and establishment of normalized ties should run parallel with resolving the dispute over the mountainous enclave.

Azerbaijan says Turkey has given guarantees that the border won’t be re-opened until Armenia’s occupation of Karabakh is resolved.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=russia-hosts-azeri-armenian-talks-2010-01-25

The Minsk Group of the OSCE has striven to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a territorial dispute between Baku and Yerevan, for 17 years. Russia, along with France and the United States, is one of the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group.

Yerevan was, meanwhile, hosting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose two-day visit to the Armenian capital began on Wednesday. Ahead of the visit, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Andrei Nesterenko had already said Lavrov would discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh issue during his talks with both President Serzh Sarksyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian. During a visit to Ankara late last month, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov voiced his country’s approval of an updated version of the Madrid document on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, a senior Turkish diplomat said on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs presented the updated document to Armenian officials in Yerevan. However, the Armenian side hasn’t yet made any statement concerning their views on the document.

In late January Medvedev is expected to host Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan at a trilateral summit in Russia, the senior Turkish diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Today’s Zaman.

“Any joint declaration, either verbally or in written form, to be released after the meeting in Russia and which clearly shows that the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides have full consent over the updated version of the Madrid Principles will mark a milestone. It will give a freer hand to Turkey for maintaining faster progress through ongoing efforts for normalization in the South Caucasus,” the senior diplomat underlined.

Ankara, which last year agreed with Yerevan to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their border, overcoming a century of hostility stemming from the killing of Anatolian Armenians during World War I, insists on seeing improvement towards a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in parallel with its efforts to normalize relations with Yerevan.

Ankara argues that partial normalization in the Caucasus cannot be sustainable as long as parties don’t exert efforts for complete normalization.

The Madrid document contains the proposals put forward by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on the basic principles of a settlement. The document was presented to the Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives at the OSCE summit in Madrid in November 2007.

On the sidelines of a G-8 summit held in L’Aquila, Italy, in July last year, the Minsk Group said Azerbaijan and Armenia must come to an agreement on the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh on the basis of the Madrid 2007 agreement while also unveiling new principles for settling the dispute, including defining Nargorno-Karabakh’s status in regards to freedom of movement with Armenia as well as road and rail links between the two. The group also said security in the area be guaranteed and troops should be withdrawn.
 
Source: Today’s Zaman
URL: www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-198498-turkey-to-get-freer-hand-with-updated-madrid-principles.html

“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.

“If the Turkish parliament doesn’t ratify the protocols, we will take response measures,” he said.

Source: PanARMENIAN.Net
URL: http://www.today.az/news/armenia/58517.html

“There is only one way to solve all these problems. Direct negotiations taking into account international law, including the rights of people to return to their place of residence, and respect for state sovereignty,” Saakashvili said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio station.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. General Assembly’s resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the occupied territories.

He said the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is complicated. A main key to the problem is Russia.

“I think thhe countries must talk, people must communicate to achieve results. As for the talks held between Turkey and Armenia, everything should be coordinated with Azerbaijan, ” Saakashvili said.

He added that talks are always good, any progress is positive.

“I do not want to call this situation the status quo. As our situation has shown, the status quo does not exist. Whenever there is such a situation, one must always be careful to avoid complications and deterioration,” Saakashvili said.

Source: Trend.AZ
URL: en.trend.az/news/karabakh/1606392.html