Interfax
Dec 15 2004

Talks on Nagorno-Karabakh entering second stage

Yerevan. (Interfax) – Problems in negotiations on ways to settle the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been
settled and the talks will soon enter their second stage, Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian told a news conference on Tuesday.

The talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in
Prague in 2004 produced joint proposals “which may provide a basis
for further talks on Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.

These proposals were presented by the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents at the Astana summit of the Commonwealth of Independent
States.

“However, Azerbaijan has put the Prague process under threat by
submitting a draft resolution on Karabakh in an attempt to pass the
Karabakh process from one international organization [the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] to another,”
said Oskanian.

“Due to the mediation of the co-chairmen of the OSCE’s Minsk Group on
Nagorno-Karabakh, problems in the talks have been settled and we are
planning to meet with the Azerbaijani foreign minister again at the
beginning of next year,” Oskanian said. The date and place of the
meeting have not been chosen yet, he said.

Oskanian said that in matters pertaining to the Karabakh settlement,
he is more optimistic than Armenian President Robert Kocharian.

Azerbaijan lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh in a bloody conflict with
Armenia in the 1990s. Settlement of the problem is proceeding within
the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is co-chaired by Russia,
France and the U.S.