AZG Armenian Daily #226, 16/12/2004

Armenia-Azerbaijan

OSKANIAN AND MAMEDIAROV OVERCOME OBSTACLES

Negotiations to Be Held Without Karabakh’s Participation

RA Foreign Minister stated during the December 14 news conference that by the
positive mediation of OSCE Minsk group and cooperating with Azerbaijan it
became possible to remove the obstacles occurred when resuming the negotiation
process. Though the obstacles were removed, Vartan Oskanian is “cautiously
optimistic.”

Recently at one of the conferences Oskanian announced that the fate of the
“Prague process” by 100% depends on whether the UN General Assembly will adopt
“the situation in the occupied Azerbaijani territories” formula put forward by
Azerbaijan or not.

In response to the question posed by Azg Daily whether it meant that Azerbaijan
excluded the issue from the UN General Assembly, Oskanian said:” I said that we
have removed the obstacle (occurred in the settlement process). You will find
out in the future what results it will yield. We are ready to begin the second
stage of the “Prague process.”

The statement adopted by the OSCE Board of Foreign Ministers said that “taking
into account the results of the “Prague process,” the OSCE Minsk group
co-chairs have submitted a negotiation circle that can serve as a ground for
the settlement to the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in September in
Astana.”

Oskanian responded to the question about NKR’s participation in the
negotiations and about its status saying: “The negotiations between Armenia and
Azerbaijan in the Prague format are likely to continue till some stage when
NKR’s participation will be necessary. The format of the present moment that
was in the course of the last few years will be preserved.”

A year ago, when Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev met in Geneva for the first
time, Oskanian stated that it is important for Armenia to know whether Aliyev
junior is ready to continue the negotiations from the point on which his father
stopped. Today, when the Prague format is spoken of, can we suppose that the
negotiations are being continued from the point where Kocharian and Aliyev
senior stopped?

“I wouldn’t like definitely to put this question like this. I merely can say
that the position of Armenia remained unchanged. Our approaches remain the same
and today the content of the framework is sufficient for us to continue the
negotiations,” Oskanian said.

RA foreign minister doesn’t pay attention to the way Azerbaijan comments the
discussions around the Nagorno Karabakh settlement to the publicity. “I take as
a ground the things I hear with my own ears and the things I discuss during the
negotiations. I believe that the things we discuss create a common circle for
the continuation of the negotiations. I don’t want to pay attention to the way
Azerbaijan comments all this to the Azeri publicity, taking into account its
home situation or its interests. In fact, two parallel processes are taking
place, i.e. the real negotiations and the things that are told to (the Azeri
publicity),” Oskanian said.

Recently, the first Armenian president said in a half-secret interview given to
the mass media protecting AAM that Armenia will not be able to return the
position it lost in 1997 in Karabakh issue. Oskanian who used to be the head of
the Armenian delegation at the negotiations held within the OSCE Minsk group
framework for many years when Ter-Petrosian was the president, emphasized that
“if the people demand for example, to begin stage-by-stage negotiations, this
issue should be really put forward, the parliament should discuss it and submit
it to the government, as it is done frequently, demanding to begin stage by
stage variant without wasting time.”

Oskanian believes that the issue can arouse constructive discussions in the
press.” Indeed, one of the main complaints of the first presidents was the fact
that there have never been any detailed discussions of Nagorno Karabakh issue,
the discussions were always a political and personalized means to strike the
people and criticize the authorities.”

RA foreign minister believes that “all the versions are just versions, good or
bad.” Oskanian doesn’t follow the slogan:” This variant is a traitorous, while
the second one is a heroic one”. “We should settle the problem, we should work
in that direction… We all are interested to settle the issue in the way it will
not harm our national interests, it will not weaken Armenia, or deprive NKR of
the achievements it has today… It is an issue of approaches that is why we
shouldn’t consider the issues by such categories as traitorous or heroic. We
should see what is in our interests, what is possible or impossible, what we
lose, what we gain and what is the middle.”

It’s worth reminding that Vartan Oskanian said that the Karabakh issue was not
the reason for Levon Ter-Petrosian’s resignation during the meeting with the
students of the Yerevan State University on July the 3rd, there were other
reasons and one can’t say that he resigned because of Karabakh, the foreign
minister pointed out.

By Tatoul Hakobian

–Boundary_(ID_cqaThcvh6g5fdlOGY1MYRA)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress