Armenian minister says no Karabakh settlement without compromises

Arminfo
12 Jan 05

YEREVAN

The latest meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers
in Prague on 11 January was held in a good atmosphere, Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan told a news conference today.

The minister reiterated earlier reports that a series of issues had
been outlined as a result of last year’s Prague meetings and these
issues would lay the foundation for further meetings, which was
confirmed during the meeting of the OSCE foreign ministers in Sofia
6-7 December 2004 . The minister added that an attempt was made in
Prague to start such discussions around these issues.

“Yes, there is such a range of issues, but it has to be said that
there is no final agreement on some of them yet. The Prague meeting
has shown that there is still a need for greater consolidation, and
the main objective of the meeting was to try to consolidate these
issues,” the minister said.

At the same time, Oskanyan pointed to some progress but added that the
process has not yet been completed. Neither is it known when the next
meeting will be held, the minister said.

The minister stressed the importance of being more careful with
statements. He said it is easy to make a statement or to speak about
successes. Each side is pursuing its own interests in the negotiations
and no-one will make statements against their own interests.

“The issue can be resolved only when both sides, and eventually
Karabakh which will be part of the process, make compromises. Without
that it is not worth expecting us to sign a document which would
reflect the wishes of all sides. It is premature to talk about
that. It is also premature to say in which direction the process is
going, because all aspects of the issue are being negotiated. It will
soon become clear how they will eventually ‘be packaged’ and agree
with each other. But so far we haven’t started the process yet. All
the questions are being discussed and each side is providing its own
comments. We think we have entered a more serious stage in the
negotiations and at this phase it is necessary to make more reserved
statements in order not to put the other party in a difficult
situation or not to get into such a situation oneself,” the minister
said.

The foreign minister also noted that the Azerbaijani press was full of
misinformation.

“There is a disgraceful situation in the Azerbaijani press today,” the
minister said. He believes that such an assessment is based on an
analysis. For instance, he said the statements some Azerbaijani
newspapers put into his mouth were wide of the mark.

“After the Prague meeting I gave a brief interview to Radio
Liberty. Anything beyond that interview is wide of the mark,” the
Armenian foreign minister said.