ARF MEMBER ON WAYS OF RESOLVING KARABAGH CONFLICT

YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS: Deputy chairman of the Armenian
parliament Vahan Hovhanesian from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation/Dashnaktsutyun warned against dangers stemming from
Azerbaijan’s efforts to have other than the OSCE Minsk group
cochairmen, the sole international body authorized to help Armenia and
Azerbaijan find a compromised solution to the Karabagh conflict,
involved in the dispute regulation process.

Addressing participants of the two-day parliament hearings on
waysto end the opposition, Hovhanesian said involvement of
parliamentary assemblies of the Council of Europe and OSCE in this
process poses a real danger to Armenian interests as the principle of
territorial integrity is placed higher by them than the principle of
peoples’ right to self-determination.

Hovhanesian went on to argue that these bodies focus mainly on
conflict consequences rather than on their causes. “We have to make
conflict consequences our weapon, as until now it has been applied
only by Azerbaijan,” he said.

Nevertheless Hovhanesian said taking the conflict case to
parliamentary assemblies has also “a positive aspect,” which,
according to him, is that they allow “to use new language”, a factor
that Armenia may benefit from. He said there are three ways of
resolving the problem-a new war, establishment of relations only after
the end of the conflict, both advocated by Azerbaijan and a search of
a peace deal through talks, contacts and other-level relations, which
he said Armenia must push for.

He said the EU Committee of Ministers will finally approve on April
25 the European Neighborhood Plan (ENA), which says that all three
South Caucasian nations must either follow its recommendations on how
to be come closely integrated with Europe or drop their hopes. “This
means that the road offered by Armenia is what Europeans say we have
to do,” he said.

Hovhanesian also said both Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh have to
undertake serious reforms in all areas to win Europe’s sympathy.