ArmenPress
Jan 10 2005

ARMENIAN FM EXPECTS PROGRESS IN KARABAGH TALKS THIS YEAR

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS: Armenian foreign affairs minister
Vartan Oskanian has left today for the Czech capital Prague where he
will resume January 11 the internationally mediated talks with his
Azeri counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov on ways to resolve the protracted
Armenian-Azeri dispute on Nagorno Karabagh.
This will be the fourth separate Oskanian-Mamedyarov meeting in
Prague in the presence of American, French and Russian diplomats
co-chairing the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
“I believe this year’s negotiations will be substantially
different from what we had in the first stage of the Prague process,
as on January 11 we shall address specific issues and details, while
in the first phase we focused on outlining the general format and
common principles,’ Oskanian told the Russian Interfax before
departing to Prague.
“The further we go into the details the more complicated the talks
become… When we get to deal with details, we have to be ready for
concessions,” he was quoted as saying.
“When talking about flexibility, I mean the negotiation process
and the sides’ readiness for compromises. Each side has to evaluate
the situation realistically and the other side’s potentialities in
order to issue demands relevant to its potentialities,” Oskanian
said.
Oskanian also expressed hope that “the already reached agreements
will help us to mark a turning point in the conflict resolution in
2005.”
Last week Azerbaijani leaders claimed the January 11 talks will
discuss the so-called “phased” strategy of conflict resolution that
has been rejected by the Armenian side. Also Yuri Merzlyakov,
Russia’s chief Karabagh negotiator, was quoted by an Azerbaijani
newspaper Ekspress last Thursday as saying that the Armenians have
finally agreed to the stage-by-stage formula.” However, officials in
Yerevan did comment on this, saying only that Merzlyakov’s statements
have been distorted by the Azerbaijani media in the past.