Aliyev describes April 24 as "Sword of Damocles" hanging over political initiatives in region

PanARMENIAN.Net - In a confidential cable from the U.S. Embassy in Baku, senior diplomat Donald Lu reported on a meeting between U.S. Under Secretary of State William Burns and President Ilham Aliyev, in which the Azerbaijani leader advocated the combining of the Turkey-Armenia

Protocols discussion and the Nagorno Karabakh peace negotiations, according to Wikileaks.

He also urged the postponement of any Protocols ratification until after April 24, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, describing this date as a "Sword of Damocles" hanging over political initiatives in the region.

Lu wrote: "U/S Burns stressed that the U.S. believes that progress on the Turkey-Armenia protocols could create political space for Sargsyan to be more flexible on NK. He continued that the reverse was also true, that a failure of the Turkey-Armenia process would almost certainly result in serious negative consequences for the NK process. Aliyev said that NK progress would require a minimum of five or six months. He suggested that the entire Turkey-Armenia protocol ratification process be delayed until after April 24. He said that the 'Sword of Damocles' of Armenian Remembrance Day is hanging unhelpfully not only over the Turkey-Armenia process, but also now the NK progress. 'If there were no deadline, maybe we could see how to combine our efforts (to resolve NK).'"

According to the cable, President Aliyev urged Under Secretary Burns to pressure Armenia to accept the most recently proposed OSCE Minsk group settlement regarding Nagorno Karabakh, calling on the three co-chair countries to "send a strong message that the independence of NK is not under review," and urging "consequences in terms of international isolation" if Armenia does not accept the measures.