LENMARKER’S REPORT’S FREE FROM ATKINSON’S PRINCIPLES

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
28 March 05

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly reporter on Nagorno Karabakh conflict
confirmed the fact that the question to be settled first is that of
the status of Nagorno Karabakh. The rest – territories, refugees,
etc. – are derivative. The draft report on Nagorno Karabakh by Goran
Lenmarker states that without the settlement of the problem of status
the rest will be impossible to solve. Recently the delegates of
Armenia and Azerbaijan took part in the discussion of the Karabakh
conflict undertaken by G. Lenmarker at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
in Brussels. Later the vice speaker of the National Assembly of
Armenia Vahan Hovhannissian and Member of Parliament Samvel Nikoyan
told the journalists that despite the efforts of the Azerbaijani
delegation the draft report by Goran Lenmarker to be presented to the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly did not contain the principles of
Atkinson’s report so dear to the Azerbaijanis. What is more, according
to NA vice speaker V. Hovhannissian, Lenmarker’s report is quite
balanced, which caused anxiety among their Azerbaijani colleagues.
According to the member of the Armenian delegation Samvel Nikoyan,
although throughout the negotiations and meetings the Azerbaijani side
attempted to withdraw the issue of Nagorno Karabakh from the OSCE,
they failed because the OSCE realizes that the mandate for settlement
of the NKR problem belongs to the OSCE only.

Lenmarker’s report will be ready in July and will be presented at the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Washington. However, before the
document will be sent out to the parties in order for them to put
forward suggestions and propose changes. Of course, it is still too
early to make conclusions on the final variant of the report but it
should not be excluded either that heated arguments are awaiting the
adoption of the report by the OSCE PA. Nevertheless, it can be stated
with careful optimism that the principles of Atkinson’s report will
not underlie Lenmarker’s report. Moreover, as the NA vice speaker
stated, the report will first of all maintain the necessity of
clarifying the status of Nagorno Karabakh. However, before the
adoption of the report, as it was mentioned already, hot struggle
between the conflict parties is expected. Most probably, in the
expected struggle Azerbaijan will get the support of the Turkish,
maybe also Georgian and Moldavian delegations. Armenia also has its
leverages for counteraction about which V. Hovhannissian did not give
any information for security reasons. The members of the Armenian
delegation vowed to do their best to prevent unfavourable
developments. Another report similar to the Atkinson’ s would greatly
complicate the situation. `If the first can be overlooked, the second
will already be difficult to overlook,’ noticed Vahan Hovhannissian.

CHRISTINE MNATSAKANIAN.
28-03-2005

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress