Leader of Karabakh urges mediators to help start dialogue with Baku

Noyan Tapan news agency, Yerevan
7 Jun 04

Stepanakert, 7 June: Only direct contacts between the mediators and
the Karabakh side and Stepanakert’s equal participation in the talks
could drive the peace settlement out of the deadlock, the president
of the NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh Republic], Arkadiy Gukasyan, said at a
meeting with the special representative of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the OSCE, Goran Lennmarker, on 4 June. Lennmarker arrived in
Karabakh on a fact-finding visit.

Arkadiy Gukasyan particularly stressed that Nagornyy Karabakh is
suffering from the fact that the conflict has not yet been resolved. As
an unrecognized republic, the NKR is being deprived of financial,
humanitarian and other necessary international assistance. In addition,
the president noted that Nagornyy Karabakh continued to remain under
the transport blockade. Despite these difficulties, Arkadiy Gukasyan
added, Nagornyy Karabakh aspires to make use of the whole of its
limited potential to develop the economic and social fields and to
form a civic society which will meet European standards.

The main information department under the NKR president reported
that Arkadiy Gukasyan expressed the hope that the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly’s interest in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and
its assistance in this process would promote peace in the region. At
the same time, the president stressed that the settlement was
being hindered due mainly to Azerbaijan’s position, its on-going
information war aimed at forming in society an extremely negative
attitude to the Armenian people. The settlement is also handicapped
by constant bellicose statements by the Baku authorities and their
reluctance to hold dialogue with Nagornyy Karabakh. In this connection,
Arkadiy Gukasyan said that rather than draw up recommendations on the
settlement, international mediators should aim at creating necessary
conditions for dialogue between Nagornyy Karabakh and Azerbaijan
which could help the sides resolve the crisis.

[Passage omitted: Lennmarker’s statement]