CO-CHAIRS TO POSE QUESTION TO OSKANIAN AND MAMEDIAROV IN LONDON

AZG Armenian Daily #063, 09/04/2005
Karabakh issue

The OSCE Minsk group co-chairs are going to hold separate meetings
with foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in London, April
15. According to reliable diplomatic sources, Vartan Oskanian and
Elmar Mamediarov will be asked some questions to clarify Yerevan’s
and Baku’s positions.

Official Yerevan does not confirm Baku’s statements that Oskanian
and Mamediarov will meet in London. Mamediarov himself and deputy
foreign minister, Araz Azimov, stated days ago that indeed he will
meet his Armenian counterpart in London.

According to April 8 publications of the Azeri press, Araz Azimov
said that there are “key elements” in the Armenian-Azeri confrontation
that demand solution in the course of settlement process. Those “key
elements”, as Azimov sees them, are the elimination of the conflict’s
aftereffects, i.e. withdrawal of Armenian forces from the supervised
territories, revival of the infrastructures, return of the refugees
and solution of political issues.

Azimov said that Baku keeps claiming return of the 7 regions but
meanwhile it considers difficulties connected with “simultaneous
liberation of the territories” and accepts the stage-by-stage
variant. To put it simply, Baku will not be against if Armenia
gradually leaves the security zone. The Azeri press keeps silent as
to what Baku will offer Nagorno Karabakh against the removal.

By the way, the issues on the agenda of Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents have been specified. According to information we possess,
there are 4 issues concerning the status of Nagorno Karabakh and
elimination of aftereffects of the conflict — buffer zone, guarantees,
return of the refugees etc.

By Tatoul Hakobian