Azerbaijan Warns Armenia On Karabakh Negotiations

Addressing a world congress of Azeris in Baku, Aliyev threatened to leave the negotiation table unless progress is reached in peace talks.

"We have been holding peace talks for the last 12 years. For 12 years, we've had a cease-fire and held talks with the hope that they would bear fruit," Aliyev said. "But how long is it going to last? This process cannot last forever and the patience of the Azerbaijani people and of the Azerbaijani government is running out."

Mediators mandated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to help Armenia and Azerbaijan peacefully settle their dispute have expressed hope progress could be reached this year as neither country has an election planned any time soon.

A bilateral summit held near Paris last month yielded no results. But the U.S. assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, Daniel Fried, said today in Yerevan he was confident discussions could continue.

The predominantly ethnic-Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh seceded from Soviet Azerbaijan in 1988, triggering hostilities that claimed some 35,000 lives and drove nearly one million people from their homes. Armenian troops have been occupying seven of Azerbaijan's administrative districts since the 1994 ceasefire agreement.

(RFE/RL's Armenian and Azerbaijani Services)