Azernews.Az

BAKU – President Ilham Aliyev has said the personal involvement of Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev "helps to come closer" to a settlement of Azerbaijan’s bitter conflict with neighboring Armenia.

"Therefore, our expectations are optimistic and we think that if the Armenian side will show a constructive approach and will find the political will to make important steps forward, the conflict can be resolved very soon," President Aliyev said in an interview with Euronews TV channel.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Serzh Sargsyan in the Volga city of Kazan on Friday, the ninth in a series of trilateral meetings on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Aliyev said the basic principles of the conflict settlement which were offered by OSCE mediators are in line with internationally recognized principles, which are territorial integrity of countries and self-governance of the people.

"These two principles are not conflicting, they are both important, and both of them can be provided in the peace agreement," Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, has been under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks are underway on the basis of the Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by the [mediating] OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairs. The principles include the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their homes.

Regarding the status of Nagorno Karabakh, Aliyev said Azerbaijan is ready to grant the highest possible autonomy to people who live in the region.

The Azerbaijani region is predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians and separatists are running a self-proclaimed republic there.

"For many years our position was very clear and several times I personally, publicly declared that we are ready to grant the highest possible autonomy existing in the world to people who live in Nagorno Karabakh and who will return to Nagorno Karabakh," Aliyev said.

Asked by Euronews how this autonomy "should work", the president said the issue will be the subject for future negotiations and it could be "a meaningful autonomy".

"The positive example of autonomy existing in Europe, I think, could be very attractive because it would be difficult for us to invent something new. We have positive examples in European countries. For instance in Italy, and Tyrol in Austria, and other places where central government pays a lot of attention, maybe much more attention, to autonomy, and financial support is much broader in order to provide decent living conditions for the people. We can do the same. Azerbaijan is a country with vast financial resources and for us it will not be a big problem to implement serious social and economic development programs for Nagorno Karabakh," the Azerbaijani president said.

With regard to current Armenian leadership’s approach to the problem, the president said that up until a certain point in time, there was a mood in Armenia that they would keep the status quo as long as they could, and they would succeed in doing that.

"But important developments in recent months show that the international community and the co-chairs of the Minsk Group - the United States, Russia and France, and their leaders - made a very straightforward statement saying that the status quo is not acceptable. These are the events of recent months. There is a very clear understanding in the world that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not a frozen one. It is not. And the ceasefire is very fragile. The permanent violation of the ceasefire on the line of contact is of serious concern, I think, to all of us - to Azerbaijan, to Armenia, to the international community," said Aliyev.

He said another important factor is that the balance of power between Armenia and Azerbaijan changed dramatically during the last several years.

"Today, for instance, Azerbaijan’s budget spending is ten times more than Armenia. The whole military budget for Azerbaijan is more than the total budget for Armenia and this is a reality. The more time passes, the gap between the two countries will be even bigger," Aliyev said.