(AP) – 8 hours ago


President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan said Saturday his nation may resort to military force if talks with Armenia on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute produce no result.

Aliyev said he expects to hold talks next week with his Armenian counterpart, Serge Sarkisian, on resolving the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. "If that meeting fails to produce result, our hopes for negotiations will vanish," Aliyev said during a meeting with Azerbaijani refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh.

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liyev said Azerbaijan wants a peaceful settlement, but won't wait indefinitely. "We have the right to free our land using military force," he said.

Nov 21, 2009


Azerbaijan and Armenia hold talks on Sunday on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with Azeri ally Turkey pressing for progress before it seals an historic rapprochement with neighbouring Armenia.

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Talks between Armenia's Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev are due to begin at midday (1100 GMT) at the residence of the French Consul General in Munich. It will be the sixth such encounter this year.

"If that meeting ends without result, then our hopes in negotiations will be exhausted and then we are left with no other option," Aliyev said in comments broadcast on Saturday. "We have the full right to liberate our land by military means."

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarkisian, are meeting today in the German city of Munich to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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Mediators from the United States, Russia, and France -- the co-chairs of the OSCE's mediating Minsk Group -- say they are making progress in the talks. But so far neither side has committed to difficult concessions.

Hrair Tamrazian, the director of RFE/RL's Armenian Service, is following the talks in Munich. He says he is not expecting any breakthroughs today

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The meeting comes just days after Aliyev said hopes to resolve the conflict through diplomatic means will be "exhausted" if today's talks fail to produce an agreement.

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan made "important progress" in talks about Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday, but some difficulties were identified, French OSCE mediator Bernard Fassier said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia held a presidential summit on Sunday amid warnings that a full blown war is brewing over a festering territorial dispute.

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Azeris have never forgiven or forgotten the loss. They have been talking on and off to Armenia for the past 15 years about clawing back at least some of the territory.

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It is unclear what concessions Armenia would be willing to make, especially as it is backed by the Russian military, which is permanently stationed on its territory.

Mediators reported progress on the Nagorny Karabakh settlement as Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan exchanged opinions on the issue at a meeting in Munich on Sunday.

November 24, 2009


Armenia said on Monday it could recognise breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state if Azerbaijan carries out its threat of military action to take back the mountainous territory

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Sarksyan’s spokesman Samvel Farmanyan said in a statement:” It should be noted that Armenia so far has not recognised the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh for one reason—so that it would not become an obstacle to peaceful negotiation.”

“If peaceful negotiations break down and military action begins, then nothing stands in the way of Armenia recognizing the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

19/06


Five soldiers are reported to have been killed in clashes in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh.

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Armenia claims a group of Azerbaijani soldiers entered the region late on Friday.

There has been no official comment on the reports from Azerbaijan.

Jun 19, 2010


The ethnic-Armenian controlled military said in a statement its soldiers repelled an Azeri attack late Friday, in which four ethnic Armenian soldiers were killed and four wounded.

In Baku, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry confirmed a clash took place and an Azeri soldier was killed.

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A day before Friday's clash, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met, together with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and agreed to continue internationally mediated efforts to resolve the conflict.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan, speaking to reporters on Saturday on the sidelines of the St Petersburg Economic Forum in Russia, said the clash was an Azeri provocation, which was "all the more unacceptable" since it occurred hours after the meeting.

19.06.2010


The ministry said in a statement that the deaths were the "result of fighting with an Azerbaijani armed reconnaissance group."

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Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian blamed Baku for the overnight action in Nagorno-Karabakh's Martakert region, calling it "a pre-planned action" intended to scuttle peace negotiations.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokeman Elkhan Polukhov, responding to Nalbandian's statement said, "It was not within the authority of Mr. Nalbandian to comment on matters, the cause of which lies in the continuing occupation of Azerbaijani lands."

Azerbaijan’s parliament on October 22 approved a military budget of 2.5 billion manats, or about $3.12 billion. That figure is higher than the entire state budget of Baku’s neighbor and longtime foe, Armenia.

Experts in Baku believe the spending surge is designed to send a message to both Armenia and the international community: if efforts to reach a peace deal on the Nagorno-Karabakh territory remain stalled, Azerbaijan could again resort to force in an attempt to settle the conflict.

24.10.2010


Pashayeva stressed that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem does not only belong to Azerbaijan, but is a problem of the whole Turkic world, and the Turks living all over the world should do everything possible to further increase efforts to solve this problem.

"We must jointly combat the lies of the so-called "Armenian genocide", move from defenсe to attack, work together to inform the world and achieve the recognition of the genocide committed by Armenians 18 years ago in Khojaly before the eyes of the world," said Pashayeva.

October 23, 2010


The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cannot be considered frozen any more, Fiona Hill, expert on Russia and Eurasia at Brookings institute, said in an interview with the Armenian VOA service.

There are still sniping incidents on the contact line between Azerbaijani and NKR armed forces and it is very dangerous, she said. According to her, Azerbaijan is actively getting ready for a new war.

October 26, 2010


Baku is again aggravating the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on the threshold of an Armenian-Azerbaijani-Russian presidential meeting. Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliev and Dmitry Medvedev are to meet in Astrakhan on Oct. 27.

Oct 26, 2010


A soldier has died in clashes that took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, just before a scheduled meeting between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Russia.

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Mediators between the two sides have repeatedly asked that snipers be removed from the contact line which the Armenian side approved and the Azerbaijani side refused.

This request to remove snipers was last proposed by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the frameworks of a UN General Assembly session but was again met with the same response when Armenia approved and Azerbaijan disapproved.

27/10/2010


Armenia and Iran have ties ranking on a very high level and Iran demonstrated its readiness to support the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki declared during a meeting with the reporters are Media International Exhibition in Tehran.

27.10.2010


The territory of Azerbaijan, recognized by the world community, is under occupation for 20 years. War crimes were committed. Khojaly town was completely destroyed and a genocide was committed against Azerbaijanis

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Azerbaijan will never reconcile with the loss of its territory. We will restore it. I would like this to be done quickly, without military actions," he said.

President Aliyev expressed gratitude to Ukraine for its consistent and fundamental stance on the conflict settlement