Recently the press secretary of the Azeri foreign affairs ministry said that their ministry wanted to come up with a recommendation, according to which the American, French and Russian co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk group will be entitled to head the group for one year each. According to them, this issue was discussed during a meeting of the heads of Azeri foreign diplomatic missions. According to Azeri diplomats, the mentioned step will enable the co-chairmen to be responsible to peacefully settle the Karabakh conflict. During the mentioned meeting of the heads of the Azeri foreign diplomatic delegation, the president of Azerbaijan said that during the past two years Azerbaijan has become much stronger both in the region and in the world. As proof of that, he said that during the recent two years he had five official visits to UN security countries. The Azeri president told the participants that the military budget of Azerbaijan covered 700 million and it was still growing. Aliev said that “Baku will not allow any Armenian state exist in the territory of Azerbaijan”. “We know that there are national minorities and sovereign states in many countries. But being a minority does not mean that they can separate a territory and have a new state there”, said the Azeri president and added, “They say that Armenians living in Karabakh have a self-determination right. If so, they can have the same right in other countries too”. Recently Azeri living in Great Britain founded a new internet page (www.karabakh.co.uk), where they have their own Azeri version of the Karabakh conflict history. It is worth mentioning that these days there are rumors in Azerbaijan saying that the war may start again soon. Besides that, on August 4 the Azeri government sent a document to the UN, which writes about the “occupied territories” and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. According to “Azatutyun” radio station, Armenian representative to the UN, Armen Martirosyan has said that in the first point of the mentioned document Azerbaijan petitioned the UN to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, the second point writes about Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan, as well as provisions concerning firing forests in the surrounding territories of Karabakh. According to the mentioned provision they petition the international community to take certain steps to stop those cases. According to Armen Martirosyan, Armenia has expressed its opinion about the mentioned document and is currently working with UN member countries. During the previous session, the UN made a decision not to discuss the issue of Karabakh while the OSCE Minsk group is processing negotiations.
“If Azerbaijan tries to continue discussing the draft formula, and then organize a referendum for that purpose, Armenia will have a right to leave the negotiations process as it has informed them”, said RA representative in the UN, A. Martirosyan. According to him everything depends on what kind of strategy Azerbaijan may have. “If Azerbaijan develops the document in the UN, it means that they have some contradictions in the negotiations process”, said the RA representative to the UN. Azerbaijan has complained several times about the work of the OSCE Minsk group. Will Azerbaijan try to develop the draft formula and discuss that in the UN? On the basis of the recent announcements of the Azeri president we may assume that they are going to do so. “Azerbaijan will never make compromises that contradict the principles of its territorial integrity and will not allow any Armenian state exist in the territory of Azerbaijan”, said the president of Azerbaijan. We couldn’t find out any information from the Armenian president’s office and foreign affairs ministry concerning the draft developed by Azerbaijan. The president’s press secretary is in Sochi now, as for the foreign affairs ministry, the correspondents are on vacation now.