Azerbaijan To Go On War Over Karabakh
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The International News
Friday January 20, 2006

Baku: The international community should force Armenia to withdraw troops from the disputed Nagorno Karabakh enclave or face new hostilities, Azerbaijan said on Thursday.

"The global community must force Armenia to do this," Ajerbaijan's Defence Minister Safar Abiyev told the deputy head of the US military's European Command, Charles Wald, the Ministry's press service said.

"If this does not happen it could lead to a renewal of military action."

"Armenia must unconditionally surrender the occupied territories," a statement quoted Abiyev as saying. The majority ethnic-Armenian region of Nagorno Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan in 1988 in a conflict that lasted until 1994 and claimed nearly 25,000 lives.

Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were displaced from Karabakh while Armenians living in Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis living in Armenia were forced from their homes in ethnic cleansing.

The United States has growing energy and military interests in oil-rich Ajerbaijan, a mostly Muslim ex-Soviet Republic sandwiched between Russia and Iran.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have observed a tense cease-fire since 1994 but negotiations mediated by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have so far failed to bring the two sides closer to a lasting agreement.

Local media, citing military sources, reported Wald was in Azerbaijan to expand the US military's aid package to Baku, which so far included a sophisticated radar network and a number of naval craft. Wald also met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday.

Source:
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jan2006-daily/20-01-2006/world/w4.htm