Bryan Ardouny: Baku should agree to direct contact with Nagorno Karabakh

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Wall Street Journal Europe today published a letter to the editor from the Armenian Assembly of America, in response to an editorial by Azeri Foreign Affairs Minister Elmar Mammadyarov entitled "The Caspian Moment." The Assembly letter sets the record straight on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and urges Baku to agree to confidence-building measures to further the negotiation process.



"The Wall Street Journal Europe Elmar Mammadyarov speaks about the need for, and benefits of a negotiated settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh ("The Caspian Moment," State of the Union, Jan. 21). But he refers to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Minsk process - the negotiating framework for the Nagorno Karabakh peace process - only in passing.



"Mr. Mammadyarov overlooks the fact that in the past 13 years, Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have accepted numerous proposals as basis for negotiations - only to be rebuffed by Azerbaijan, which also refuses to undertake confidence-building measures. Instead, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev publicly stated earlier this month that "the war has not ended."



"Furthermore, Mr. Mammadyarov asserts that "regional integration is a priority for Azerbaijan." In reality, Baku persists in its policy to isolate Armenia - from its continuing blockade in coordination with Turkey to a pipeline that circumvents Armenia.



Rather than torpedo the recently intensified efforts by the mediators to reach a settlement, Azerbaijan should take these talks seriously, end the blockade, cease its bellicose statements and agree to confidence-building measures and direct contact with Nagorno Karabakh," Bryan Ardouny, Executive Director of the Armenian Assembly of America writes in his letter.