KARABAKH NEWS ROUND-UP

Let's start our round-up of news from Nagorno-Karabakh with the following quote of the week from President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan... (see entire Azeri Press Info article)

I have stated several times that the conflict can be solved in the framework of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. Armenian people already achieved their self-determination, they have their own state. If the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh again want self-determination, they should go to Armenia…

Regarding the ongoing peace negotiations , we read in PanArmenian Net that President Robert Kocharian of Armenia told students at Yerevan State University that he expects to see his Azerbaijani counterpart, President Aliyev in St. Petersburg on June 10th. According to the Azeri Trend News Agency, officials in Baku have not yet officially confirmed their readiness to attend. On that day a informal summit of CIS member states will take place in St. Petersburg.

A report in TODAY.AZ quotes President Aliyev as saying that...

A principal demand consists in that all seven occupied area of Azerbaijan, including Kelbajar and Lachin must be freed. There is already an agreement about that.

He goes on to say that the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh will be determined only after the occupied territories are returned and all the displaced refugees allowed to go home. Even then, however, any status given Nagorno-Karabkh must be within the framework of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. President Aliyev says he is flexible on the use of the Lachin corridor as a conduit between Armenia and Karabakh.

According to PanArmenian Net, Serzh Sargsyan, Armenia's newly appointed Prime Minister responded by saying, "Let him speak what he wants". The Prime Minister underlined the fact that he has no notion what objectives Aliyev pursues by making such statements.

We then read in a DeFacto news item that Seyran Ohanian, the Defense Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), during a press conference in Stepanakert stated that the territories surrounding the NKR had historically belonged to Armenia and he considered them to be liberated. According to Ohanian these areas constitute a security zone and cannot be returned until the conflict is finally settled. We should also note that Lieutenant General Ohanian will soon be appointed Chief of the General Staff for the Republic of Armenia's Armed Forces. Possible candidates as his successor have not yet been put forth.

And finally, here's a list of the five likely candidates to run in the July 2007 NKR Presidential election. May 5th is the last day for nominations to be officially registered with the Central Electoral Commission.

Armen Abgaryan - Member Of Parliament

Vania Avanesyan - Professor at Artsakh State University

Masis Mayilyan - NKR Deputy Foreign Minister

Hrant Melkumyan - First Secretary of NKR's Communist Party

Babko Sahakyan - Chief of NKR's National Security Service