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ALIYEV WAS STRAIGHTFORWARD WITH THE JOURNALISTS
AND DID NOT EXCLUDE THE MILITARY OPTION OF RESOLVING
THE KARABAGH CONFLICT
Baku, 23.07.02 ARMINFO - TURAN. At the summit in Yalta the Azeri delegation
forthrightly referred to the necessity of resolving the Karabagh problem on
the basis of the standards of the international law, as the Azeri president
Geydar Aliyev stated at his recent meeting with the founders of Baku Press Club
and the domestic news agencies.
Talking about the
exchange of territories with Armenia set forth by Aliyev, the Azeri leader emphasized
that "if the opposite party reacts to such proposal, Azerbaijan would respond
accordingly". Therefore, this issue should not be considered prematurely.
However, Aliyev firmly believes that one should not lose hope since there are
still sufficient alternatives for the resolution of the problem.
To the question
whether Aliyev admitted any mistakes made in the resolution of the Karabagh
problem in the course of his presidency or whether it was the fault of the opposition,
OSCE and the United States, the president reminded that the Karabagh problem
surfaced in 1988. The Azeri leader noted that the conflict has deep historical
roots. The president indicated that thanks to his efforts the conflict was prevented
as early as during the Soviet power. As to the time-period which covers the
last nine years, the Azeri president noted that no mistakes were made by him
in the process of conflict regulation. As Aliyev explained, the conflict had
not been resolved because of the "severe realities" of the modern
world politics. In the opinion of Geydar Aliyev, a major factor for Azerbaijan
which hindered the settlement of the conflict was that the problem had assumed
a character of an inter-state conflict.
Touching upon
the issue of the involvement of OSCE and UNO in the resolution process, the
head of Azerbaijan stated that he intended to further cooperate with these organizations
"despite their unsuccessful emissary missions". At the same time Aliyev
did not exclude the military option of resolving the problem. Nevertheless,
he noted that the international organizations were not supportive for such approach.
On the other hand, the restarting of the military actions would be a serious
burden on the economy of the country which is facing wide prospective for development.
