ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN CONFLICT

Progress seen on Garabagh after leaders’ talks
Sunday’s talks, held in Munich, Germany between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders on the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, were constructive and progress was made “in some areas”, the OSCE mediators brokering the peace process have said.
“During this meeting, the sixth such meeting this year, the two presidents engaged in a detailed and in-depth discussion of the most important unresolved points in the co-chairs' proposals. The talks, which lasted almost four hours, were constructive. In some areas, progress was made. At the same time, some issues still remain open,” the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Yury Merzlyakov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France, and Robert Bradtke of the United States - said in a joint statement.
Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian instructed their foreign ministers to continue working with the co-chairs on these matters. As a next step, the mediators are organizing a working session with the two ministers in advance of the OSCE Ministerial Council, which will take place December 1-2 in Athens, the statement said.
The Azerbaijani government has confirmed that progress had been made at the presidential talks in bringing closer both sides’ positions. Elkhan Polukhov, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said the significance of the meeting is also noted in its lasting nearly four hours.
The presidents met at the residence of the French Consul General in Munich at the initiative of the Minsk Group co-chairs. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian, as well as the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, also participated in the talks.
The French Foreign Ministry said earlier that the talks were to focus on returning the Armenia-occupied territories surrounding Upper Garabagh to Azerbaijani control; security and granting an interim status to the region allowing for self-administration; creating a corridor linking Armenia with Upper Garabagh; determining the region’s final legal status; providing guarantees for the return of Azerbaijani refugees to their homes; and stationing peacekeeping forces in the region.
Further, Reuters quoted French co-chairman Fassier as saying that "some difficulties" had been identified despite significant progress in the peace process. He did not elaborate due to confidentiality and only said the presidents had, for the first time, exchanged views on so many issues. Along with unresolved matters, the two leaders discussed new topics, Fassier said.
Also, US mediator Robert Bradtke said he was impressed by the political will to seek a settlement, BBC News reported.
"I think today what was impressive was the way the two presidents worked with us ... and their willingness to discuss points that are quite difficult and quite controversial and I think, as someone who is relatively new to this process, that is what impressed me the most," he said.
Russia’s Yury Merzlyakov said he had called on the presidents to refrain from making strongly-worded statements against each other at this sensitive time in peace talks and from rhetoric about seeking a military solution to the long-standing dispute.
The Azerbaijani leader said last week that the latest meeting should be crucial for resolving the conflict. In remarks broadcast on Azerbaijan’s TV channel on Saturday, President Aliyev warned that the Munich talks were the final hope of settling the issue peacefully and, if the meeting failed to reach agreement, he would be "left with no other option” but to use force to free the country’s occupied land.
"We have the full right to liberate our land by military means," he said.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since a brutal war there in the 1990s that claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about one million Azerbaijanis from their homes. Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven adjacent Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but the OSCE-brokered peace talks have been fruitless so far. Azerbaijan has never ruled out military action to liberate its land and has spent billions on dollars on building up its military.
The meeting was the first since Armenia and Turkey, Azerbaijan’s ally, moved to normalize their strained relations after a century of hostility caused by Armenia’s occupying Azerbaijani territory and Armenian claims on alleged World War I-era genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Armenian pullout ‘agreed’
Some world media outlets have released reports saying an agreement had been reached during Sunday’s talks on Armenia’s returning some of the occupied Azerbaijani territories soon.
Euronews, the European Union’s news network, reported that the two countries’ leaders had discussed a framework accord envisioning an Armenian pullout. The report quoted a diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity following the meeting of Presidents Aliyev and Sarkisian. Euronews said the presidents had achieved significant progress on the framework agreement but did not reach a final accord. Under the agreement, Armenia will pull out of five of the seven districts around Upper Garabagh, but the region itself and the strategic Lachin district which links it with Armenian territory will remain under occupation.
According to the Turkish Haberler.com website, Armenian officials said during the Munich talks that it could withdraw from Kalbajar, another strategic district, by the end of 2009. Yerevan’s goal is both to soften Baku’s stance and to secure approval of the agreement on mending ties Armenia recently signed with Turkey, Azerbaijan’s ally, in the Turkish parliament.
Haberler.com said a source at the Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed the report.
“Turkey shut its border with Armenia in 1993 immediately after Armenian forces invaded the Kalbajar district, and the key pre-condition for reopening the border is the return of Kalbajar,” the source said.


Armenia threatens to recognize rebel region
The Armenian president’s spokesman has claimed Yerevan could recognize the “independence” of the self-proclaimed Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh republic or sign an agreement on mutual assistance with it if tension around the self-styled entity continues to grow.
Samvel Fermanian said Armenia has not recognized the so-called independence since that the move would hamper peace talks underway with Azerbaijan.
“But if peace talks grind to a halt and military action begins, nothing will stand in the way of Armenia’s recognizing Upper Garabagh’s independence,” Fermanian warned.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict for over a decade. Armenia has been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory since the end of warfare in the early 1990s. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev warned last week that if Sunday’s talks with his Armenian counterpart in Munich failed to reach agreement, Azerbaijan would be "left with no other option” but to free its occupied territories by military means.


POLITICS

Aliyev among world’s 500 most influential Muslims
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has been included in the book "500 most influential Muslims of the world".
The book, published under the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding of Georgetown University, underscores that Aliyev is the leader of a country whose citizens follow the basis of moderate Islam and which is an active member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazada, the Caucasus Muslims Office (CCO) chairman, is another representative from Azerbaijan in this list.
The book also includes Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's President Abdullah Gul, Saudi King Abdullah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz Al Saud, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, as well as Iran’s clerical leaders and the rulers of the Asian Muslim countries.


ECONOMICS

Baku hosts first Azeri-Belgian business forum
An Azeri-Belgian business forum was held for the first time in Baku on Monday. The event was attended by 15 Belgian and about 40 Azeri entrepreneurs.
Samir Valiyev, the head of the Azerbaijan Economic Development Ministry’s office, said Belgium is mainly represented by companies engaged in agriculture, industries, transport, and consulting services.
Valiyev said Azeri-Belgian relations were developing. He added that, despite the world economic crisis, bilateral trade turnover increased 46% to $66 million from January-September in comparison with the same period in 2008.
Emin Eyyubov, the Azeri ambassador to Belgium, told the foreign businessmen that tourism, industries and agriculture are the priority sectors for the fast-growing South Caucasus republic and are attractive for channeling investment.
Philip Jotard, Belgian Ambassador in Baku, voiced confidence that cooperation between the two countries would continue to expand.
“As for which sector in Azerbaijan investment could be made in, this will be up to investors. Businessmen working in seven fields are represented at the current business forum. Investments could go to agriculture, industries, construction and other sectors. But the final say is up to the businessmen.”


OIL & GAS

Devon Energy to sell its ACG stake
The U.S. company Devon Energy is selling its share in the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) offshore unit in Azerbaijan, hoping to focus on mining projects in the U.S.
"We will sell our stake in the ACG project, as well as all our international assets, including assets in the Gulf of Mexico," Devon Energy spokesman Chip Minty wrote in an e-mail to Trend Capital on Monday.
According to Minty, Devon Energy has decided to focus its activities on onshore projects in North America, "where the company has more opportunities to drill."
Some reports have circulated that Devon Energy will sell its share in the first quarter of 2010.
Devon Energy has a 5.62-percent equity share in the ACG project. Its total reserves exceed 900 million tons.
ACG participating interests are: BP (operator - 34.1 percent), Chevron (10.2 percent), Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR (10 percent), INPEX (10 percent), StatoilHydro (8.6 percent), ExxonMobil (8 percent), TPAO (6.8 percent), Devon (5.6 percent), ITOCHU (3.9 percent), and Delta Hess (2.7 percent).
In the first three quarters of 2009, BP produced over 224 million barrels of oil from the ACG fields, which on average is over 822,100 bpd, BP said last week.
The Baku-Supsa pipeline stretching to the Black Sea coast of Georgia transports a variety of Azeri light oil produced in the field. The project partners, excluding ExxonMobil and Devon Energy, transport major volumes of oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main export pipeline to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.
ExxonMobil and Devon Energy, which are not involved in the BTC project, transport their crude by rail toward Georgia’s Black Sea ports.


HEALTH

Swine flu concerns allayed
The last patient being treated for A/H1N1 (swine flu) in Azerbaijan has been discharged from hospital, allaying concerns over the virus, Health Ministry official Viktor Gasymov said.
14 cases of swine flu have been reported in the country so far. All the patients have recovered, officials noted.
The first two H1N1 cases were reported in Azerbaijan this past July in two persons who contracted the virus while in France and Britain. Early in November, the Health Ministry confirmed 11 more cases in Azerbaijani citizens who had returned from Ukraine and Turkey, people who were in contact with them, as well as a foreign national who visited Britain. Further, health officials reported one more case of A/H1N1 infection in a Baku resident.
Swine flu, which began to spread rapidly this spring, has killed thousands around the world.


MISCELLANEOUS

Italian historian traces Azeri roots in Leonardo da Vinci
World-famous painter Leonardo da Vinci could have had Azerbaijani roots, according to a sensational conclusion made by Italian historian Louis Buff Parry after many years of research.
Parry has established that da Vinci’s mother was apparently a Muslim who hailed from Azerbaijan and was brought to Italy as a slave.
However, the conclusion is just one of the theories. Other suppositions suggest the painter’s Oriental roots could be traced by examining fingerprints on his drawings, which were discovered a few years ago. The examination showed that the central pattern on da Vinci’s left index finger is inherent in 60 percent of Oriental people.