Azernews.Az

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement to the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict are expected to submit new proposals to Azerbaijan and Armenia during their visit to the region this month, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has said, adding this could be seen as "progress in a certain sense."
Azimov told reporters Monday that the essence of the proposals is common knowledge. The Azerbaijani IDPs displaced by the armed conflict with Armenia in the 1990s must return home, the occupied territories must be freed and Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity restored for this. Azimov said any cooperation between the two countries is impossible prior to the IDPs’ return; without cooperation, peace is out of the question; and, without peace, no issues relating to the status of Upper Garabagh can be negotiated.
The two South Caucasus republics have been locked in conflict for nearly two decades. Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law. OSCE-brokered peace talks have so far been fruitless and refugees remain stranded. Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and IDPs returned home, and only after that could the status of Upper Garabagh be determined within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
Touching on the dynamic of peace talks, Azimov emphasized that the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders have held several meetings over the past year.
"In my view, this is a dynamic. As for whether or not this dynamic is a positive one, the continuation of meetings is grounds to say that the process is beneficial. But the opposing side should know that Azerbaijan is looking for an effective approach to discussions and opposes using these meetings to drag out time."
Regarding Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to the United States this week during which the Garabagh problem will be discussed, the deputy minister said he believes Erdogan will call on Washington to make considerable steps toward a solution of the long-lasting dispute.
Azimov expects that Turkey-Armenia relations will be tabled in the U.S. as well.
"Azerbaijan believes that these discussions will be based on the Turkish president and prime minister’s statements that opening of the Turkey-Armenia border is possible only after a solution of the Upper Garabagh conflict."
Armenia and Turkey signed protocols on October 10 in Switzerland to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their sealed borders, in a bid to normalize ties, marred by decades of hostility due to Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territory and Yerevan’s claims on 1915 "genocide" in Ottoman Turkey. However, Ankara has made clear it could fully normalize ties with Yerevan only after the Garabagh conflict has been settled.*