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BAKU
(Combined Sources)–”This is the last chance for Armenia to leave
the occupied lands voluntarily for the sake of its own future
and its own security,” threatened Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
Tuesday during the inauguration of a center for the so-called
“Azeri Community of Nagorno-Karabakh,” reported the Turan news
agency.
The
threat comes two days after Aliyev held talks with Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, who urged both sides to refrain from “use
of force or the intention of use of force” to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
In
his lengthy remarks, Aliyev said that Azerbaijan had accepted
the updated Madrid Principles drafted by the OSCE Minks Group
that is mediating the peace process.
He
said the time had come for Armenia to adopt the principles,
accusing Yerevan of deliberately delaying the process.
The
Azeri President said his country’s growing economic and military
potential and the strengthening of its position in the
international arena will help it restore its territorial
integrity.
“Today our army is able to solve any task,” the Azerbaijani
President said. Aliyev, however, did not touch upon the
mechanism of development of the final legal status of
Nagrono-Karabakh during his speech.
In
related news, Azerbaijan has denied Armenian claims that Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev presented his Armenian and Azerbaijani
counterparts with a new international plan to end the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at their meeting in Saint Petersburg
last month, reported Radio Free Europe.
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian referred to them as “a new
version of the Madrid principles” of a Karabakh settlement at a
joint news conference in Yerevan with U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton on Sunday.
President Serzh Sarkisian likewise spoke of “the latest version”
of the proposed framework accord as he met with the visiting
French, Russian and U.S. co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on
Saturday. A statement by his office said the document was
“presented in the course of the Saint Petersburg negotiations
between the presidents of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan.”
The
Azei Foreign Ministry dismissed these statements late on Monday.
“Even though Russia plays a large role in this process and the
Russian president has taken part in several meetings [between
Aliyev and Sarkisian,] proposals are drawn up only by the [Minsk
Group] co-chairs,” Azerbaijani news agencies quoted the ministry
spokesman, Elkhan Polukhov, as saying.
“Updated Madrid proposals exist only in the form of a document,
and they were submitted to both parties last year,” Polukhov
said. “Only various approaches were discussed in Saint
Petersburg. The statement by Nalbandian is only aimed at
distracting the Armenian and international publics from the
essence of the issue.”
The
three co-chairs made no mention of the Saint Petersburg in a
statement issued after their latest tour of the conflict zone.
They instead reiterated the U.S., Russian and French presidents’
joint calls for the parties to “take the next step and move
towards completing work on the Basic Principles to enable the
drafting of a peace agreement to begin.” They also urged the
sides to “strictly observe the 1994 ceasefire and exercise
restraint along the Line of Contact.”
“During their visit, the Co-chairs also presented to the parties
their plan to undertake a mission to the occupied territories in
this fall, which was accepted in principle,” added the
statement.
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