Officials Say Karabakh Deal Close At Hand

By Harry Tamrazian

12 July 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Armenia and Azerbaijan are close to hammering out a peace accord on Nagorno-Karabakh that will allow its ethnic Armenian residents to decide their status in an internationally supervised referendum, according to sources in Yerevan privy to the negotiating process.
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[...] the conflicting parties have already agreed on the key points of a peace deal that could be formalized as early as this year or at the beginning of 2006.[...]
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[...]the referendum would be held within 10 to 15 years from the signing of a peace agreement and would follow the return of five of the seven occupied Azerbaijani districts around Karabakh. They said the Lachin District, which serves as the shortest overland link between Armenia and Karabakh, would remain under Armenian control, while agreement has yet to be reached on the seventh occupied territory, Kelbajar. The Armenians are ready to pull out of Kelbajar only after a date is set for the referendum, while the Azerbaijani side is demanding its liberation, along with that of the five other districts, the sources said.
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