Azerbaijan will have to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence; analyst

YEREVAN, June 19, /ARKA/. An Armenian political analyst said today Azerbaijan will have sooner or later to accept Nagorno-Karabakh’s status.

Speaking at a news conference at Novosti international press center, Alexander Manasian said, “We should not cherish hopes that Azerbaijan will recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence, we must be sure that one day it will do so.’

To achieve this, he said, Armenia should work hard to make the international community realize the roots and causes of the conflict correctly. He said the peace talks will go on in any case because there is no alternative to them.

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-