Armenpress

ARMENIA READY TO DISCUSS RETURN OF ARMENIAN- CONTROLLED REGIONS IN RETURN
FOR SECURITY AND STATUS FOR KARABAGH

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS: Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian
said today he will not have a tete-a-tete meeting with his Azerbaijani
counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov in London on April 15. He said instead the OSCE
Minsk group co-chairmen will have separate meetings with both foreign
ministers. According to him, this format was proposed by the cochairmen, who
believe that it would be more effective at this stage.
“We have had many meetings (with Mamedyarov) and there is no urgent need
for another such meeting,” Oskanian told a news conference.
Oskanian described recent press reports that the international peace
brokers have developed a new package of proposals to end the long-running
dispute over Karabagh as “obvious exaggeration.” “We have not reached a
point in the talks so as to discuss new fresh proposal,” he said, adding
also that the Minsk group cochairmen expect Armenian and Azeri presidents to
express their approaches to a set of issues.
Oskanian denied opinions that the sides are close to striking the final
peace deal, but did not rule out a breakthrough at any moment. He said the
parties have reached accord on the frameworks of issues which they want to
be discussed. He termed this “progress”, saying previously one of the sides
used to deny discussion of this or that related question. “When we begin to
discuss the details of this or that issue our positions still appear to be
far from one another,” he said.
Oskanian voiced Yerevan’s readiness to discuss “the return of Armenian
controlled-territories around Nagorno Karabagh,” saying Armenia looks upon
them as a security guarantee. “These regions will remain under Armenian
forces’ control to ensure the security of Karabagh and decide its future
status, they could be given back in return for its security and status,” he
said.
He also said there is no final agreement on whether presidents Aliyev and
Kocharian would meet either in Moscow on May 8-9, or in Warsaw, later that
month.