Azeri official rules out Karabakh's involvement in peace talks

Azadliq, Baku
8 Jul 06

A spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has said that Nagornyy Karabakh cannot be a party to the Azerbaijani-Armenian talks, the Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq has said.

In response to Karabakh speaker Ashot Gulyan's remark that Azerbaijan's agreement to hold a direct dialogue with Nagornyy Karabakh would demonstrate Azerbaijan's desire to resolve the conflict, Tahir Tagizada, press secretary of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, said that "at present Nagornyy Karabakh cannot be a party to the talks. The international community knows very well who the parties to the conflict and to the talks are", Azadliq reported.

Tagizada said that Baku could work with the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagornyy Karabakh after the restoration of the ethnic composition of the region that existed before the conflict.

"As for the proposal to involve Nagornyy Karabakh in the talks and [the programme director of the International Crisis Group] Sabina Freizer's words that 'if the co-chairs do not want to do anything, the parties themselves should resolve the issue', they come from internal political needs and are not constructive," Azadliq quoted Tagizada as saying.