Armenia should take “temporary control of Nagorno Karabakh,” head of
NATO PA and former Spanish FM think

Mediamax News Agency
21.12.04

Yerevan, December 21. /Mediamax/. Former Spanish Foreign Minister
Ana Palacio and head of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly (PA) Pierre
Lellouche think that Armenia should take “temporary control of Nagorno
Karabakh”, further status of which will be determined at a referendum –
in the course of 5 or 10 years.

This is stated in a joint article by Ana Palacio and Pierre Lellouche
entitled “Putin and empire phantoms” published in French Le Figaro
newspaper today, Mediamax reports.

The authors of the article state that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
differs from the conflicts in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria,
the “governments” of which are linked with different Russian mafia
structures and criminal organizations”.

“The conflict, which led to a clash between Armenia and Azerbaijan in
Nagorno Karabakh, is more complex, it is of some other character. But
even here Russia’s military and political influence on small Armenia is
huge. This conflict only seems “frozen”, it rendered Armenia lifeless
(half of the country’s population preferred to live in exile after
the declaration of independence),” Palacio and Lellouche write.

“The Europeans, Americans and Russians have to jointly reach a
compromise, according to which Armenia would take a temporary control
of Nagorno Karabakh, further status of which would be determined
at a referendum – in the course of 5 or 10 years. The OSCE Minsk
Group, working under the chairmanship of the United States, Russia
and France, could guarantee the reaching of a compromise and assist
to the implementation of economic assistance policy. As to Turkey,
it would be given an opportunity to exert good will and show that the
country wants to make part of the European family and may be useful:
for this it should open the border with Armenia, which has been in
ruthless blockade for already 15 years after the proclamation of
independence, thus making the life of this republic-enclave much
easier. And finally, in exchange for cooperation with Azerbaijan in
this conflict the West should establish close partnership with this
country,” former Spanish Foreign Minister and head of NATO PA suggest.

Mediamax recalls that Ana Palacio and Pierre Lellouche visited Nagorno
Karabakh and Armenia on October 26-28, 2004, as part of a joint
mission of The German Marshall Fund of the U.S. (GMF) and Project on
Transitional Democracies (PTD). During the visit, Pierre Lellouche, as
well as other members of delegation, spoke for the direct participation
of the Nagorno Karabakh’s authorities in the negotiating process.