Armenian foreign minister accuses Azeri leader of obstructing talks

Mediamax news agency
17 Mar 04

YEREVAN

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said today that the
“contents of the negotiations between the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents, Robert Kocharyan and Heydar Aliyev, had justified the fact
that representatives of Nagornyy Karabakh were not involved in the
negotiations”.

Mediamax reports that speaking at a joint briefing with the OSCE
chairman-in-office [Solomon Passi] in Yerevan today, Vardan Oskanyan
explained that this was the reason for a recent statement by the
Armenian Foreign Ministry which said that “if Baku wants to start the
talks from scratch, it has to talk exclusively to Stepanakert
[Xankandi]”.

The Armenian foreign minister sharply criticized Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev for “trying to cross out what had been achieved by his
father [Heydar Aliyev] and Robert Kocharyan over years”.

Oskanyan said Armenia was trying to take advantage of visits by the
leaders of international organizations in order to bring Azerbaijan
back into the path of previous agreements.

The minister added that consultations between the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmen and the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers would
be held in Prague on 29 March. He expressed the hope that the meeting
would “help us understand how exactly Azerbaijan wants to continue the
negotiations”.