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Elmar Mammadyarov: We keep all options on the table when it comes to restoring the full sovereignty of Azerbaijan

30 April 2008 17:37 (UTC +04:00)

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline bringing Caspian oil to the Mediterranean and western markets through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey skirts the conflict zone of Nagorno-Karabakh â€“ the internationally-recognized Azerbaijani territory currently under Armenian occupation,â€ says the article by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov published in European Voice magazine.
â€œWorld energy security, as well as the stability and economic prosperity of the Caspian region, now demands that the long-running dispute over Karabakh, part of Europe’s new neighbourhood, is settled. Azerbaijan is determined to see its territorial integrity restored in the near future. Over two decades, almost a million of our people have been displaced by a foreign occupying force. A resolution will not just benefit us. Armenia too will see its international isolation ended. Its borders with Azerbaijan will be opened, with all the prosperity that will follow lucrative east-west trade and transport,â€ the article says.
â€œAs for Russia, its interests in the region for once converge very well with those of the EU. As one of the biggest foreign direct investors in our countries, Russian businesses will benefit from stability, transparency, and predictability in the South Caucasus.
Despite phenomenal economic progress in Azerbaijan, our full potential â€“ and thus the full potential of the Caspian region â€“ cannot be realised while the conflict remains unresolved,â€ the minister writes.
The minister underlines that the occupied areas are also havens for illegal transnational activity, money laundering and drug and arms trafficking, which directly affects the citizens of European countries as well as the states in the region.
â€œOn 15 April, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed clear support for Azerbaijan’s full sovereignty and called for more political will to achieve resolution. The NATO alliance at its summit in Bucharest earlier this month agreed that peace in Karabakh must be realized quickly and within the borders of Azerbaijan. In March, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution reaffirming Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and explicitly calling for the withdrawal of all Armenian forces,â€ the article writes.
â€œStaring down Armenian forces over a shaky ceasefire line inside our internationally recognized territory is no longer a workable reality. They must leave and the displaced people return.
Azerbaijan proposes a final offer to Armenia. We support full autonomy for Karabakh within Azerbaijan. Our priority is diplomacy, but we keep all options on the table when it comes to restoring the full sovereignty of Azerbaijan,â€ the article writes.