Armenia against military solution to Karabakh conflict; president

YEREVAN, December 13, /ARKA/. Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan has again warned that Armenia will recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent country if Azerbaijan tries to use force to resolve the conflict.

Speaking at a Friday summit of heads of states making the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Moscow he said Armenia is "absolutely against a military solution" to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, but if Azerbaijan were to take military action in the enclave, Armenia would "be left with no choice" but to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh and "provide for the safety of its population by all means."

Armenian president reminded of a joint statement signed at an OSCE summit in Kazakhstan’s Astana December 2 by Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents and representatives of Russia, USA and France, which have co-chairs in the OSCE Minsk Group, which says that there is no alternative to a peaceful solution of the conflict, stability and a lasting peace in the region.

He also recalled that the Astana statement calls for a resolution of the conflict based on UN and other international basic norms, including the OSCE documents and the statements made by Minsk Group member countries’ presidents in the latest two G 20 summits. He also reminded that Russian president and French prime minister warned at the Astana summit against use of force or threats to use force to settle the conflict describing them as unacceptable.

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-