Both Azerbaijan and Armenia decided to suspend Karabakh talks, spokesman says
Mediamax news agency
27 Oct 04
Yerevan, 27 October: “No matter what statements Azerbaijan issues,
we have repeatedly announced and confirmed that Nagornyy Karabakh’s
status is a high priority for Armenia,” the press secretary of the
Armenian Foreign Ministry, Gamlet Gasparyan, said in Yerevan today.
Gasparyan said this commenting on Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov’s statement that the latest talks had discussed Armenia’s
withdrawal from seven occupied districts around Nagornyy Karabakh.
“All other issues derive from the problem of status, and Armenia
regards them exclusively in the context of the future status of
Nagornyy Karabakh,” Gasparyan said. He added that Armenia had an
interest only in the final settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem
and this approach determined its involvement in the talks.
Commenting on Mammadyarov’s another utterance that in Astana [in
September 2004] Armenian President Robert Kocharyan had taken time-out
“to analyse the results of the meetings”, Gasparyan said that the
Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders had made a joint decision to suspend
the talks.
“We have not yet received a reply from Azerbaijan on the issues of
interest to Armenia,” Gasparyan said.