- Title: JAPAN: Armenian Foreign minister shrugs off Azerbaijan threats
- Date: 27th November 2009
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (NOVEMBER 26, 2009) (REUTERS) TOKYO SEMINAR ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER EDWARD NALBANDIAN ARRIVING AT PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER EDWARD NALBANDIAN SAYING "Unfortunately it's becoming so usual to hear some threats from the Azerbaijani side before each meeting in the level of two presidents that there is no big impression of such kind of statements. But at the same time, such kind of statements don't create appropriate conditions for negotiations." REPORTER WRITING NOTES AUDIENCE CLAPPING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER EDWARD NALBANDIAN SAYING "The three co-chair states made many times declarations against any military rhetoric and Azerbaijani'S being a member of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) and one of the main, basic principle of the OSCE is the non-use of force or the threat of force." CAMERA CREW FILMING NALBANDIAN NALBANDIAN LEAVING
- Embargoed: 12th December 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Japan
- Country: Japan
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA3FUAM6GHN32HP0QJV4J4TUT0A
- Story Text: Armenia downplayed on Thursday (November 26) Azerbaijan's recent warning that Azeri troops were ready to take back Nagorno-Karabakh by force if negotiations over the South Caucasus territorial conflict do not make a breakthrough soon.
Tensions are growing over the mountain region that broke away from Muslim Azerbaijan with Christian Armenia backing in the 1990s, as Armenia pursues a historic thaw with Azeri ally Turkey to the anger of oil-producing Azerbaijan.
"Unfortunately it's becoming so usual to hear some threats from the Azerbaijani side before each meeting in the level of two presidents that there is no big impression of such kind of statements," Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian told reporters in Tokyo during a four day visit to Japan when asked about the recent Azeri threat.
"But at the same time, such kind of statements don't create appropriate conditions for negotiations," he said.
Talking to Reuters later, he added:
"The three co-chair states made many times declarations against any military rhetoric and Azerbaijani'S being a member of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) and one of the main, basic principle of the OSCE is the non-use of force or the threat of force."
Sporadic exchanges of fire continue to threaten war in a key oil and gas transit region to Europe, while the dispute also threatens to tilt energy policy in Azerbaijan, a oil and gas supplier to the West but which is also being courted by Russia.
Fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh erupted as the Soviet Union headed towards its 1991 collapse. Some 30,000 people died and more than 1 million were displaced before a ceasefire in 1994.
The conflict came back into spotlight this year as Turkey and Armenia try to overcome a century of hostility stemming from the World War One mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, raising concerns in Azerbaijan that it will lose leverage over Armenia. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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