Armenia says Nagorno-Karabakh peace process will make progress only after Azerbaijan stops saber rattling
08.06.2010,
19:15
Armenia has again slammed Azerbaijan for its incessant war rhetoric saying the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process will make progress only after Azerbaijan stops saber rattling.
YEREVAN, June 8, /ARKA/. Armenia has again slammed Azerbaijan for its incessant war rhetoric saying the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process will make progress only after Azerbaijan stops saber rattling.
Tigran Balayan, head of the press office of the Armenian foreign ministry, said in a statement that a breakthrough in the stalemated process is possible only after the official Baku stops saber rattling, assumes responsibility for launching the conflict and its consequences, stops also trading its own vision of international law for the true international law and will not seek to distort the essence of the negotiation process.
His remarks came in retaliation to senior Azerbaijani diplomats’ allegations that Armenia impedes progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1988 after the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave declared about
secession from Azerbaijan As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the enclave's government, the Armenian majority voted in 1991, December 10, to secede from Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the enclave the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Full-scale fighting, initiated by Azerbaijan, erupted in the late winter of 1992. International mediation by several groups including Europe's OSCE’s failed to bring an end resolution that both sides could work with. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself. By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also held and currently control seven regions beyond the administrative borders of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Almost 1 million people on both sides have been displaced as a result of the conflict. A Russian- -brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan.-0-
Tigran Balayan, head of the press office of the Armenian foreign ministry, said in a statement that a breakthrough in the stalemated process is possible only after the official Baku stops saber rattling, assumes responsibility for launching the conflict and its consequences, stops also trading its own vision of international law for the true international law and will not seek to distort the essence of the negotiation process.
His remarks came in retaliation to senior Azerbaijani diplomats’ allegations that Armenia impedes progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1988 after the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave declared about
secession from Azerbaijan As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the enclave's government, the Armenian majority voted in 1991, December 10, to secede from Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the enclave the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Full-scale fighting, initiated by Azerbaijan, erupted in the late winter of 1992. International mediation by several groups including Europe's OSCE’s failed to bring an end resolution that both sides could work with. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself. By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also held and currently control seven regions beyond the administrative borders of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Almost 1 million people on both sides have been displaced as a result of the conflict. A Russian- -brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan.-0-
