Hurriyet Daily News: Azeri official urges solution to conflict

Hurriyet Daily News

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

İPEK YEZDANI

The head of the Foreign Policy Department in the Office of the Azerbaijani President has said Iran has offered to solve the Karabakh issue among regional states but this doesn’t seem “realistic.”

“I don’t think the Karabakh issue can be solved without big states and [of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE’s] Minsk group,” Novruz Mammadov told the Hürriyet Daily News.

“Iran has a very important role for Armenia in the region, they make good trade with Armenia; it would be very difficult for Armenia to continue its presence as a state [without Iran],” he said. Mammadov noted that Turkey had closed its border with Armenia many years ago because of the Karabakh conflict, “Since the time that Turkey froze its relations with Armenia, we see this as support from one brother to another and other countries could also do the same thing,” he said.

Regarding the Azeri reaction on the Turkey-Armenia rapprochement, Mammadov said: “Even brothers can have problems sometimes. We don’t have any objections to the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border once Armenia leaves the occupied areas of Azerbaijan.” Nagorno-Karabakh is a constituent part of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia since the end of 1994. The enclave is internationally recognized as Azeri territory, but it has declared itself an independent republic.

Years of negotiations involving Russia, the United States and Europe, as well as Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders themselves, have failed to resolve the enclave’s status or enable the return of refugees. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan in the conflict.

While defending the solution of the Karabakh conflict within the Minsk group, Mammadov also accused international powers of not being fair during talks regarding the issue. “Seven areas that belong to Azerbaijan are under Armenian occupation today. However the big powers in the Minsk group treat Azerbaijan and Armenia as if they are under the same situation,” he said.

“Global powers also think of their own interests, so they can say ‘white’ today for something that they called ‘black’ yesterday,” said Mammadov.

The official said he believed the Karabakh conflict would be solved “one day in the future.”

Regarding the priorities of Azerbaijan, Mammadov said: “Azerbaijan has turned its face to Europe. We turned our face West but we also have good relations with the Asian countries as well as the Muslim world.”

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