94 ans de déni : ça suffit !

Aliyev, Sarkisian to Meet This Weekend in Munich

By Asbarez Staff on Nov 19th, 2009

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will hold their next keenly anticipated meeting in Munich this weekend, according to officials in Yerevan and Baku.

Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian said late on Wednesday that the American, French and Russian mediators are about to make an official statement to that effect. “I can confirm that,” he told the Armenian parliament.

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov similarly said on Thursday that Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian will meet for the sixth time this year “in the coming days.” Citing an unnamed diplomatic source in Baku, the Azerbaijani Trend news agency said the talks will take place in the southern German city of Munich on Sunday.

The French, Russian and U.S. diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group made no such announcements as of Thursday evening. They said after a visit to Baku and Yerevan early this month that the two presidents accepted their proposal to meet again “before the end of November at a time and place to be confirmed.”

“Both presidents reiterated their commitment to continue their discussions, with the objective to make further progress toward reaching an agreement on the basic principles for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the mediators said in a joint statement.

Their push for yet another Armenian-Azerbaijani summit suggests that the three mediating powers still hope to achieve a breakthrough in their protracted search for Karabakh peace before the end of this year. They hoped that Aliyev and Sarkisian will iron out their remaining differences over the basic principles” at their last meeting held in Moldova a month ago.

The two leaders clearly failed to do that, with Aliyev describing those talks as “unproductive.” His foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, claimed that the Armenian side has toughened its position in the negotiating process, having been emboldened by progress in the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.

Trend quoted Azimov as saying that Baku therefore expects Yerevan to change its “position from the last meeting.” “Azerbaijan is leaving room for compromises. We now stand in the middle of the bridge and expect Armenia to cross its share of the path,” he said.

Azimov’s Armenian counterpart, Shavarsh Kocharian, hit back at the comments later in the day. “The Azerbaijani side has made a habit of issuing a statements before a meeting of the presidents which is aimed at thwarting progress expected from that meeting,” he said in a statement.

http://www.asbarez.com/2009/11/19/aliyev-sarkisian-to-meet-this-weekend-in-munich/

Israel Declines Turkish Mediation, Says Erdogan

By Asbarez Staff on Nov 19th, 2009

ROME (Hurriyet)–Unlike his predecessor, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no longer trusts Turkey to mediate stalled peace talks with Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, signaling how much relations have deteriorated between the regional allies in recent months.

“Former Israeli Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert trusted Turkey, but Netanyahu doesn’t trust us. That’s his choice,” the Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as telling reporters at the World Summit on Food Security in Rome.

Israel’s hard-liner Prime Minister Netanyahu and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met French President Nicolas Sarkozy separately last week, during which Israel said it was ready to resume peace talks without preconditions. The Turkish prime minister, however, doubts Assad will accept French mediation.

“Now France is trying to take up the role we had. I’m not sure what kind of stance Bashar Assad will take, but from what I’ve heard from him, they’re not going to accept something like this,” Erdogan said. After meeting with Sarkozy, Assad said he was not willing to hold face-to-face negotiations with the Israeli leader and called instead for lower-level dialog under Turkish mediation.

Erdogan also remarked on the fact that earlier efforts by Turkey to mediate between Israel and Syria, including negotiations concerning Israeli withdrawal from Golan Heights, had been interrupted by Israel’s attack on Gaza.

Last year, Syria and Israel held four rounds of indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey without making headway. Negotiations were broken off last year during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, closing a promising diplomatic channel towards a broader Middle East settlement. The Ankara government has repeatedly voiced its willingness to re-launch stalled negotiations, but Turkey’s worsened ties with Israel have clouded its role as a regional broker.

http://www.asbarez.com/2009/11/19/israel-declines-turkish-mediation-says-erdogan/

Greek Cyprus Rejects Turkish Proposal for Five-Way Talks

By Asbarez Staff on Nov 19th, 2009

ATHENS (Hurriyet)–Greek Cyprus has rejected a proposal by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a five-party conference, under United Nations supervision, to speed up a solution for the war-divided island.

“They want a new Burgenstock and of course new arbitration in order for pressures to be exerted on the Greek Cypriot side to accept solutions that are not new,” Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias said, according to a statement posted on the Cyprus Press Ministry Web site.

A quintet summit means the downgrading of the Greek Cyprus and the country will accept neither strict timeframes, nor arbitration, Christofias said, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Burgenstock was the Swiss town that was the site of U.N.-led discussions in 2004 that aimed to find a way to end the division of Cyprus.  

Reconciliation talks between the Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talaand his Greek Cypriot counterpart Christofias were launched last year by the United Nations. Talks under Alexander Downer, the former Australian foreign minister, who is the U.N. envoy to negotiations, have made significant progress in a number of areas.

However, momentum has slowed as a looming election due to be in held in the Turkish territory next April overshadows the meeting. Turkish voters are deeply disillusioned with the south’s unequal position. The Turkish Cypriot President since 2005 favors reunification and membership of the EU for the whole island but his rivals disagree with him.

A five-party summit on Cyprus would involve the east Mediterranean island’s Greek and Turkish-speaking sides as well as Turkey, Greece and the U.K., who are all guarantor powers of Cyprus under a 1960 accord that led to the country’s independence from British colonial rule.

The U.K. made an offer to the United Nations to make available just under 50 percent of the territory of its Sovereign Base Areas on the island to a unified Cyprus in the event of a solution, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Nov. 11 after a meeting in London with the Greek Cypriot President.

There are two British bases in the British sovereign territory on Cyprus. Akrotiri, which hosts the only RAF station on the Mediterranean, is located in Greek Cyprus, while Dhekelia is on the Turkish side. According to the terms of the offer, the Greek and Turkish leadership would decide the proportion of territory transferred out of British control by themselves.

http://www.asbarez.com/2009/11/19/greek-cyprus-rejects-turkish-proposal-for-five-way-talks/