Karabakh insists on package settlement , parliament speaker says

Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
22 Jun 04

[Aykakan Zhamanak correspondent] Mr Yesayan, rumours are circulating
that on 3 June, during the meeting of [Armenian President] Robert
Kocharyan with the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Steven Mann,
they discussed the issue of returning to Azerbaijan three districts
bordering on Iran. Are you aware of these discussions?

[Oleg Yesayan] I did not take part in these discussions, I have never
heard of them, and I do not think there were such discussions. If
Karabakh does not think it is serious to return five districts in
exchange for opening the railway, why do you suppose that it should
agree to return three districts?

[Correspondent] Nevertheless, it is evident that the Karabakh issue
should be settled only by means of compromises. What is the limit of
compromises that Karabakh can make?

[Yesayan] All the problems connected with compromises may be more
specifically discussed during the talks. By the talks I mean a much
wider and deeper process than the talks that are being conducted
today. We can talk about any compromise only in case the Karabakh party
is also a full participant in the talks. On the whole, our principled
position is the following: Karabakh should never be an enclave and
should border on Armenia, Karabakh cannot stay within Azerbaijan with
any status. Moreover, Karabakh should have firm security guarantees.

[Correspondent] In an interview with our newspaper, a member of the
Azerbaijani Milli Maclis [parliament], Samad Seyidov, has said that
resources of the peaceful settlement of the issue seem to have been
used up. Moreover, Azerbaijan has been frequently making calls for
a military settlement to the problem.

[Yesayan] If there is only a cease-fire between the parties which
are at war and there is no peace agreement, naturally nobody has
ever denied the possibility of the war restarting. But according to
our information, we are sure that today Azerbaijan is not ready to
settle the problem militarily. We also say that such problems may not
be settled militarily. Finally, once there was war and the problem
was not settled. Who said that another war could settle the Karabakh
issue? As for the bellicose statements, they are conditioned by the
necessity in Azerbaijan to strengthen [President] Ilham Aliyev’s
political positions and nothing else.

[Correspondent] Recently an attempt has been made on different
international levels to return to the stage-by-stage settlement of
the problem once again. What will be Karabakh’s position in this case?

[Yesayan] The Karabakh party definitely insists on the package
settlement. If today the stage-by-stage settlement supposes dividing
the whole package of the Karabakh issue into separate parts and
discussing them in a succession where only the last stage may concern
the defining of the Karabakh status, of course, this is unacceptable
for us. I would like to ask: will Azerbaijan agree to discuss
the package settlement if the first problem of the stage-by-stage
settlement is the Karabakh status? [Sentence as received] Our position
is strict: the issue should be resolved under the package settlement.

[Correspondent] The presidents of Azerbaijan, Aliyev senior and Aliyev
junior, and Kocharyan met 17 times. Is there any positive change as
a result of those meetings?

[Yesayan] Yes, there is. The continuation of these talks is a guarantee
that today’s peace will be preserved. The cease-fire is being preserved
at least. Moreover, as long as these meetings continue, the Minsk
Group thinks that a mutually acceptable settlement to the problem can
be found and they also stimulate their work. I certainly understand
that these meetings have not yet yielded serious results, but they
should be considered as positive in the abovementioned context.

[Passage omitted: NKR wants to participate in talks]