16:50, 10 February 2004

Armenia waits for Ilkham Aliyev to give variants of Karabakh conflict resolution

Attempts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have been temporarily brought to a halt. This was announced by Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian on February 9, at his meeting with members of the all-Armenian youth gathering. He said that the new president of Azerbaijan, Ilkham Aliyev, had not spoken of his position on the issue so far and it was not clear whether he would choose to pursue the negotiations that his predecessor and father Geidar Aliyev had led or he wanted to start everything from scratch. However Mr Oskanian said there was information the Azerbaijan leader did not want a lengthy negotiation process. The Karabakh problem is territorial only in the sense that Azerbaijan has no legal or historic claims on Nagorny Karabakh, said the Armenian minister.

Editors note: See also the article "Ilkham Aliyev: no compromises or haste in settling Karabakh conflict".

Source: Rosbalt News Agency