U.S. hopes for mid-July Garabagh deal on principles
International mediators hope to reach a deal between
Azerbaijan and Armenia on the principles of a peace accord
regarding the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict at talks
tentatively planned for mid-July in Russia, the US negotiator has
said.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza told Reuters that he and his fellow mediators from France and Russia were "shooting for" a full framework agreement by the end of 2009.
But Bryza conceded the risk of a last-minute breakdown of the kind that derailed earlier efforts to broker agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
"I don`t have any reason necessarily to believe that getting as far as we have here -- which is similar to how far the mediators and the parties got both at Key West and before -- that we`re going to get further than they did," he told Reuters by phone from Washington on the weekend.
"I do know that we`ve gotten very far now. What gives me some hope that we will keep moving is logic," he added.
The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims over Azerbaijan. Since the early 1990s, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Upper Garabagh region and its seven surrounding districts -- a frozen conflict carried over from the former Soviet Union.
The OSCE Minsk Group, set up in 1992 and co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France, seeks to resolve the conflict peacefully.
Armed clashes still occur regularly along the lines separating Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, although major hostilities ended.
Bryza said the Minsk Group mediators hoped to bring together Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian in mid-July, the latest in a string of encounters fuelling speculation of a breakthrough.
"We hope that if they meet in the middle of July, they will have agreed, conceptually, on all elements of these basic principles," he said. The parties would then go line-by-line through the three-and-a-half pages of text to agree the details.
"Once that happens, which we, the co-chairs, are shooting for by the end of the year, then we could say, it would be true, that a framework agreement has been reached," he said.
Bryza said the mediators were bridging the gap between the two countries for an agreement, but that the final deal would likely provide for a vote "that reflects the genuine will of the populations."
"What we are trying to do is incorporate self-determination through a voting process on Upper Garabagh`s final legal status, but in a way that, for the foreseeable future, has no impact on Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity."
Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and Azerbaijani refugees, displaced during the armed conflict in the early 1990s, returned home, and only after that could the status of Upper Garabagh be determined within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said Monday that Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and Eduard Nalbandian are due to meet in Paris on Friday. Proposals made by the Minsk Group co-chairs will be discussed and issues related to arranging the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents negotiated.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza told Reuters that he and his fellow mediators from France and Russia were "shooting for" a full framework agreement by the end of 2009.
But Bryza conceded the risk of a last-minute breakdown of the kind that derailed earlier efforts to broker agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
"I don`t have any reason necessarily to believe that getting as far as we have here -- which is similar to how far the mediators and the parties got both at Key West and before -- that we`re going to get further than they did," he told Reuters by phone from Washington on the weekend.
"I do know that we`ve gotten very far now. What gives me some hope that we will keep moving is logic," he added.
The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims over Azerbaijan. Since the early 1990s, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Upper Garabagh region and its seven surrounding districts -- a frozen conflict carried over from the former Soviet Union.
The OSCE Minsk Group, set up in 1992 and co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France, seeks to resolve the conflict peacefully.
Armed clashes still occur regularly along the lines separating Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, although major hostilities ended.
Bryza said the Minsk Group mediators hoped to bring together Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian in mid-July, the latest in a string of encounters fuelling speculation of a breakthrough.
"We hope that if they meet in the middle of July, they will have agreed, conceptually, on all elements of these basic principles," he said. The parties would then go line-by-line through the three-and-a-half pages of text to agree the details.
"Once that happens, which we, the co-chairs, are shooting for by the end of the year, then we could say, it would be true, that a framework agreement has been reached," he said.
Bryza said the mediators were bridging the gap between the two countries for an agreement, but that the final deal would likely provide for a vote "that reflects the genuine will of the populations."
"What we are trying to do is incorporate self-determination through a voting process on Upper Garabagh`s final legal status, but in a way that, for the foreseeable future, has no impact on Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity."
Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and Azerbaijani refugees, displaced during the armed conflict in the early 1990s, returned home, and only after that could the status of Upper Garabagh be determined within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said Monday that Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and Eduard Nalbandian are due to meet in Paris on Friday. Proposals made by the Minsk Group co-chairs will be discussed and issues related to arranging the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents negotiated.
Here we are to serve you with news right now. It does not cost much, but worth your attention.
Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis.
By subscribing to our online newspaper, you can have full digital access to all news, analysis, and much more.
Subscribe
You can also follow AzerNEWS on Twitter @AzerNewsAz or Facebook @AzerNewsNewspaper
Thank you!