Armenian foreign minister downbeat on Europe’s Karabakh report

Arminfo
23 Nov 04

Yerevan, 23 November: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said
in Yerevan today that he regarded the draft project drawn up by the
rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
[PACE] on Nagornyy Karabakh, David Atkinson, as an “ordinary report”.

The Armenian foreign minister said that in the view of the Armenian
side, the draft report contains wording that does not exactly reflect
the essence of the conflict.

“However, it is necessary to understand that it is a normal political
process when Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives are trying to
make the report meet their interests in full”, Oskanyan said. At the
same time, he noted that the Armenian delegation at PACE managed to
get certain provisions of David Atkinson’s document amended.

“The struggle is continuing at this and other fronts”, Armenian
foreign minister said.

Oskanyan noted that the discussion of the issue at PACE does not at all
mean that the settlement of the conflict is gradually being transferred
to the Council of Europe. He recalled that the Karabakh conflict was
also recently discussed by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Oskanyan
said that “we take all resolutions and reports calmly as they do not
attempt to predetermine political status for Nagornyy Karabakh that
would be unacceptable to us”.