2011年6月26日星期日

Armenia, Azerbaijan talks produce little progress (AP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
By MANSUR MIROVALEV and LYNN BERRY, Associated Press Mansur Mirovalev And Lynn Berry, Associated Press – Fri?Jun?24, 3:15?pm?ET

MOSCOW – The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed on Friday to approve a set of basic principles for a peaceful settlement to their long-standing dispute over the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, despite U.S. and Russian efforts to mediate the conflict in the strategic Caucasus region.

The war over the predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan ended in 1994 leaving 30,000 dead and more than 1 million displaced. Since then, talks to resolve one of the most worrisome "frozen conflicts" in the former Soviet Union have dragged on with the enclave controlled by Armenian and separatist forces.

Hopes were high for Friday's Kremlin-hosted talks in the Volga River city of Kazan on approving the set of basic principles, but after three hours of talks the parties reported little progress.

Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's President Serge Sarkisian said they "reached an understanding on a number of issues" but provided no details.

Both leaders face fierce domestic pressure not to compromise, but their countries also have been eager to overcome the consequences of the war.

President Barack Obama spoke to the leaders by telephone on Thursday and urged them to endorse the basic principles and take a "decisive step toward a peaceful settlement."

Ambassador Robert Bradtke, the U.S. diplomat involved in international efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, described the talks as "probably the most important point in the process since 2001, when there were efforts made to get a peace agreement at Key West."

Both separatist and Azeri governments report sporadic skirmishes and shootings of each other's servicemen on the border.

Azerbaijan, an energy-rich, predominantly Muslim country on the Caspian Sea, has struggled to cope with the hundreds of thousands of people driven out of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that also fell under Armenian control.

Impoverished, landlocked and mostly Christian Armenia has been hurt economically by Turkey's closing of the border in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan. Turkey shares close ethnic and linguistic ties with Azeris. An agreement between Turkey and Armenia in 2009 intended to open the way to diplomatic ties and the reopening of the border foundered over Turkey's demand that Armenian troops withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh.

In the Communist era, Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous region within Soviet Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh is a Russian-Turkish term that means "mountainous black garden." Ethnic Armenians that now account for virtually the entire population, call the region Artsakh.

Before becoming part of czarist Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan had long been dominated by Iran and Ottoman Turkey.


View the original article here

没有评论:

发表评论