"Azerbaijan and Russia closely cooperate in Nagorno-Karabakh issue"

Azerbaijan and Russia closely cooperate on the Nagorno Karabakh issue at different levels, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said in an interview with Moscow News newspaper.

"I have a rather close and tight relationship with Sergey Lavrov," he said. "The Presidents are very close, especially now when Dmitry Medvedev is personally involved in efforts to resolve this conflict".

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

Mammadyarov said the respective parties meet regularly, each time discussing the settlement issue.

"At present President Dmitry Anatolievich knows in detail the position of both countries - our reactions to this or that contradiction," he said. "He is genuinely trying to find a common ground for the process not to freeze, not to slip, but to move forward".

Mammadyarov said that Russia's active involvement through Dmitry Medvedev shows results.

We saw slight hope of movement in the right direction at the last meeting in Sochi on March 5, he said.

"I must give Dmitry Medvedev my due that he scrupulously sought common ground -- non-standard decisions," he said. "The last meeting in Sochi gave hope".

What exists in the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia today does not satisfy anyone, he said.

I would like to have more rapid breakthrough than we expect. The principles are not a peace treaty, he said.

"The efforts should be tripled rather than doubled," he said. "The decision on Karabakh is very complex. It is connected with many factors. Even if we prepare a peace treaty, this would not be the end yet. It will only be a light at the end of the tunnel".

He said that the current state of affairs, the so-called status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh, leads to the regression in the development of the region and relations.

"There is a large number of refugees and displaced people," he said. "Plus, of course, the military factor is very serious. There is more and more movement in this context. One understands that the status quo will lead to negative consequences".

He said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cannot be considered frozen.

"The occupied territories’ placing the armed forces and accelerating arms (including heavy equipment and air forces) leads to nowhere," he said. "It leads only in the direction of moving from a state of sporadic skirmishes to a more active phase. But this is nowhere".

On the other hand, Azerbaijanis were driven from their homes and place where Armenians have never lived. This is an explosive mass. More than 700,000 people are calling for a resolution of this issue, he said.

He said that there is a special state program for resettlement of refugees, especially those living in tent camps due to oil revenues.

"It is done for people who acquire their own belongings over time to have the opportunity to resettle in the places where they previously lived when they return," he said.

He said that the war in Georgia in 2008 prompted the intensification of negotiations to settle the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

An updated plan of the document expounded upon at the OSCE in 2007 - the Madrid document - was submitted in 2009.

The plan explained that the occupation of the territories cannot continue. According to a set timeline, the forces must be gradually withdrawn from the occupied territories around Nagorno-Karabakh. Of course, the status of Nagorno-Karabakh has always remained on the agenda, he said.

"Although we, like all world countries except Armenia, consider this part as Azerbaijan's territory, a grey-zone, the current position of Karabakh derived of a status is also a very serious problem. We admit this," he said.

If the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied territories within the fixed limits opens the opportunities, from strengthening the confidence building measures to opening all the communications, of course, the safety issue should be also reflected, he said.

He said that there is a principal decision that the international peace observers will be placed in locations to be determined not only from a political but a military point of view. People will begin returning and the economy will develop. There will be the confidence-building measures between the people. They will provide an opportunity to bring the relations out of the current rhetoric, he said.

"We must proceed from the axiom that people can not live at enmity forever," he said. "Sometimes one does not choose neighbors. We have a serious foreign-policy responsibility to find common ground. But what should we do when the territory is occupied? I am deeply convinced that the withdrawal of Armenian troops, at least, beginning of withdrawal is very serious. It will dramatically change the situation on the spot".

He said that of course, the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement is Turkey's decision.

"But on the other hand, if this process moves in the same format as before, without taking into account the interests of Azerbaijan, we will have to react," he said. "The Turkish leadership understood this".

"The occupation of the Kalbajar region, the first region outside Nagorno-Karabakh was the fundamental factor of Turkey's closing the borders with Armenia," he said. "It was conscious reaction of the Turkish authorities that the Kalbajar region was occupied and they can not establish their relations with the aggressor-country".

The Kalbajar region is still under occupation, he said.

"Therefore, we call for Turkey, as a very powerful country, to play a role of stabilizer and contribute to the movement within the settlement, beginning from liberating the territories," he said. "Just believe me that the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied territories will stimulate positive processes".

Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers Ahmet Davutoglu and Edward Nalbandian signed the Ankara-Yerevan protocols in Zurich Oct. 10. But the protocols were not ratified in the parliaments.

Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey were broken due to Armenian claims of an alleged genocide and its occupation of Azerbaijani lands. Their border closed in 1993.


/Trend/