Azerbaijani leader says cease-fire may improve relations

MOSCOW >> The president of Azerbaijan said Saturday he hopes the cease-fire that ended a six-week war with Armenia this month will lead to improving relations between the countries.

President Ilham Aliyev made the statement as a highlevel Russian delegation visited Azerbaijani’s capital, Baku. The delegation, which included Russia’s foreign and defense ministers, also visited the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Russia negotiated the cease-fire signed two weeks ago, under which Azerbaijan is to regain sizable areas of land that had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since a previous war in the early 1990s. The agreement is backed by the presence of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers.

“I hope that today’s cease- fire and our further plans to normalize relations with Armenia, if perceived positively by the Armenian side, can create a new situation in the region, a situation of cooperation, a situation of strengthening stability and security,” Aliyev said.

The two countries do not have diplomatic relations, and the Armenian-azerbaijani border has been closed since the war over the separatist region of NagornoKarabakh that ended in 1994 with Armenian forces in control of the region and large swaths of adjacent territory.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Aliyev favors unblocking the “vital trade routes” in the region.

Russia and Azerbaijan also agree on the need to create conditions for ethnic conciliation in the region, Lavrov said.

Animosity between Christian Armenians and Muslim Azerbaijanis is strong. Many Armenians leaving the territories that Azerbaijan is taking over set their houses on fire rather than allow Azerbaijanis to use them.