Interfax
March 30 2005

Karabakh settlement will require compromises – minister

YEREVAN. March 30 (Interfax) – Settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
will require painful compromises from Armenia and Azerbaijan,
Armenian Defense Minister and Security Council Secretary Serzhik
Sarkisian said on Wednesday.

“I am absolutely sure that the settlement of the Karabakh crisis will
be painful for the Armenian as well as for the Azerbaijani people,”
Sarkisian said at parliament hearings devoted to the Nagorno-Karabakh
settlement.

“A compromise presumes concessions, and nobody can make concessions
without difficulties,” he said.

If Armenia receives security guarantees for Nagorno-Karabakh, the
existing security area around Nagorno-Karabakh [seven Azerbaijani
regions under control of the Karabakh side] “will lose its meaning,”
he said.

The handing over of those territories to Azerbaijan is not yet on the
agenda, Sarkisian said. “We just have to be ready to hold
negotiations on the security area,” he said.