October 3, 2006


Azeri Airliner Lands in Armenia

For the first time since the collapse of the former Soviet Union an Azerbaijani airliner has landed at Armenia’s main Zvartnots Airport. In what was no doubt as much symbolic in the context of continuing attempts to resolve the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh than simply travel, the Azal Airlines TU–134 carried the three OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs charged with the task of mediating a solution.

According to A1 Plus, the arrival of the Azerbaijani aircraft was posted on the Zvartnots website (screen grab above) and “aroused great interest.” No doubt, and take this as signs of continued momentum towards a peace deal. Whether that comes or not is anybody’s guess, but the signs are still there that nobody has given up yet.

The OSCE Minsk group has not finished its work, claim the Co-Chairs. Today they announced that the Armenian and Azeri Foreign Ministers will meet in Moscow on October 6.

[…]

Bernard Fassier, French Co-Chair says that he didn’t announce in Baku that Karabakh cannot participate in the negotiation process at present. He didn’t answer the same question in Yerevan either. He didn’t exclude the possibility that peaceful troops may be located in vacated territories by 2006.

Tomorrow the Co-Chairs will leave for Karabakh. Mr. Bryza assured that the Co-Chairs are of the same opinion on all questions, and there is no discord among them. “I can assure that the Karabakh conflict settlement has not a military solution,” said Mettew Bryza. Bernard Fassier said that unless Armenians and Azeris are ready to live side by side as neighbours, the Karabakh conflict won’t be settled. As for the time when the conflict will find its final solution, Mr. Fassier said, “Let’s live and see.”

Personally, I also view Chirac’s recent visit to Armenia and his planned trip to Azerbaijan in this context as well. Perhaps we should also view reports that much of the territory outside of Lachin is being depopulated — as I wrote about in articles for Eurasianet and the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) — in this light too.

Posted by Onnik @ 10:23 pm. Filed under: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Karabakh, Caucasus, Aviation, Transport




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  1. Armenia, Azerbaijan Agree To Resume Direct Talks

    By Emil Danielyan

    The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Moscow on Friday for face-to-face peace talks that could be followed by another crucial Armenian-Azerbaijani summit on Nagorno-Karabakh, international mediators said on Tuesday.

    The senior French, Russian and U.S. diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group made the announcement after talks with the leaders of the two nations. They were in Baku on Monday and are scheduled to meet with the Armenian leadership of Karabakh in Stepanakert on Wednesday in their latest round of shuttle diplomacy.

    Speaking at a joint news conference in Yerevan, the mediators said Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov will likely hold another round of negotiations next week in an attempt to kick-start the deadlocked peace process.

    In the words of Bernard Fassier, the group’s French co-chair, the two ministers will specifically look into the possibility of organizing yet another meeting of their presidents. Fassier and his American and Russian colleagues refused to speculate on the chances of a breakthrough.

    “We are not saying that we are on the verge of a grand breakthrough or that the difficult problems have gotten any easier,” said, Matthew Bryza, the U.S. co-chair. “But we do sense a willingness by the sides to think in a deeper way and to look for a way to move ahead.”

    http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniareport/report/en/2006/10/CB6EADE0-D2D3-4ED1-93DF-C8E2D0FEAE7D.ASP

    Comment by Onnik — October 3, 2006 @ 10:28 pm

  2. OSCE MG Co-Chairs Return to Bucharest Option
    03.10.2006 18:00

    /PanARMENIAN.Net/ In case of agreeing to another round of talks the parties to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will have to discuss a modified documents over the Karabakh settlement, OSCE MG Russian Co-Chair Yuri Merzlyakov said. «During coming talks discussion of a document, proposed in Rambouillet, then edited in Bucharest and now, having undergone changes, will be presented at the next meeting,» the Russian diplomat noted.

    Merzlyakov also said that the new ideas are based on specification of the document, presented to parties in May, Day.az reports.

    http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=19495

    Comment by Onnik — October 3, 2006 @ 11:48 pm

  3. OSCE brokers new round of Nagorno-Karabakh talks between Armenia, Azerbaijan

    The Associated Press

    October 3, 2006

    YEREVAN, Armenia Envoys from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Tuesday brokered a new round of talks between foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict following a tense impasse.

    Yuri Merzlyakov, a Russian diplomat who co-chairs the so-called Minsk group of the OSCE dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said the two nations’ foreign ministers were to meet Friday in Moscow. He said a time and venue for a meeting of presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan remain to be negotiated.

    The foreign ministers’ meeting would restart bilateral talks which have been interrupted recently due to the lack of progress.

    “We would like to rejuvenate direct contacts between the sides, and I think we have achieved this goal,” said U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew J. Bryza, another co-chair.

    OSCE envoys held talks in Armenia Tuesday a day after visiting Azerbaijan.

    […]

    Talks in France in February between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev and Armenian President Robert Kocharian about the enclave broke down, and the two leaders again failed to agree on principles for settling the conflict when they met again in Romania in June.

    “We aren’t saying that we are on the verge of a grand breakthrough or that the difficult problems have got any easier, but we do sense the willingness of the sides to think in a deeper way and look for a way to move ahead,” Bryza said.

    He said that lack of trust between the parties continued to hinder the talks and said that “an effort to rebuild that confidence” was particularly important.

    Earlier this year, OSCE mediators proposed a set of principles for settling the conflict which included withdrawing Armenian troops from the Azerbaijani territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh but suggested that a corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh would remain under Armenian control.

    The principles also included deploying international peacekeepers, resettling displaced people and a referendum — its timing and format to be worked out later — on the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Merzlyakov said Azerbaijan and Armenia were advised to proceed from the same set of principles. “It’s wrong to say that the things already done are no longer on the table,” he said.

    http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/03/europe/EU_GEN_Armenia_Azerbaijan_Nagorno_Karabakh.php

    Comment by Onnik — October 4, 2006 @ 2:40 am

  4. AZAL’s Tupolev 134 lands in Yerevan

    03 October 2006 [20:31] - Today.Az

    On Tuesday at about 11:30 a.m. for the first time in recent history Tupolev 134 belonging to AZAL landed in Yerevan’s “Zvartnots” airport.

    Gevorg Abrahamyan, head of the press service of “Zvartonots”, said that the OSCE Minsk group Co-Chairs arrived in Armenia on that very plane. A1+

    URL: http://www.today.az/news/society/30985.html

    Comment by Onnik — October 4, 2006 @ 8:45 am

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