Armenian minister says progress made in Karabakh talks

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
19 May 05

Progress has been achieved on the Nagornyy Karabakh status at the
latest meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Poland,
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has said. In an interview
with Armenian Public TV, Oskanyan said that new opportunities had
been opened up for discussing other elements of a package settlement.
The Armenian minister also criticized Turkey for failure to organize
a meeting between the two countries’ leaders in Warsaw. This showed
that there is no progress in Armenian-Turkish relations, Oskanyan
said. The following is the text of the interview on Armenian Public
TV on 19 May; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

[Presenter] We have invited Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
to our studio today to receive his comments on the recent Warsaw
developments [meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents on
the fringes of the Council of Europe summit on 15 May] which were in
everybody’s focus of attention.

Good evening, Mr Minister. First of all, I would like to ask you
about Kirk Kirkoryan’s [well-known US philanthropists of Armenian
origin, founder of the Lincy Foundation] visit to Armenia. What is
the aim of his visit? Are official meetings expected and will the
future programmes and activity of the Lincy Foundation in Armenia
be discussed?

[Vardan Oskanyan, captioned] This is Kirkoryan’s private visit. He
has arrived in Yerevan from the Cannes Film Festival in France, he
decided to visit his motherland and spend several days here. He has
come with a relative. He is also an American Armenian, John Mason. He
is in Armenia for the first time.

Kirkoryan held unofficial meetings with Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan and me.

Progress achieved at Warsaw talks

[Presenter] Mr Minister, commenting on the latest [Armenian President
Robert] Kocharyan – [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev meeting
in Warsaw, you said that a little step was made forward during that
meeting and some progress was achieved on the Karabakh status. Does
this mean that the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the greater
Artsakh [Karabakh] lands was not discussed at the negotiating table?

[Vardan Oskanyan] Let us not speculate. When I said that the progress
achieved during the Warsaw meeting of the presidents was in line
with the principles of the Armenian side, I just intended to answer
to the Azerbaijani leadership, especially their foreign minister’s
[Elmar Mammadyarov] recent statement that the Armenian side is ready
to return seven districts. You know that one of our main conditions
is that Nagornyy Karabakh should not be an enclave and this cannot be
a subject of discussion. There can be only one decision – this is the
self-determination right of the Nagornyy Karabakh population. While
having this status, Nagornyy Karabakh should also have a common border
with the Republic of Armenia. Therefore, I stressed that the progress
we talked about referred to the return of the districts.

I would like to repeat that the meeting was good, positive progress
was achieved on some issues. I do not want to speak about details
because there can be serious disagreements. You see, Mammadyarov’s
one statement has caused such disagreement. In this connection, I
want to say that, in order not to cast doubt upon that, my spokesman
[Gamlet Gasparyan] said that it does not correspond to reality.
Nevertheless, one of the obstacles in the key issues, albeit small,
has been removed and we have made positive progress.

Recently I said that we, the foreign ministers, have already exhausted
our mandate. We have done everything that was possible to do within
the Prague process over the last two years. There was really a need
for the two presidents’ meeting. That is why I refused to meet my
Azerbaijani counterpart. I can say that there was a need for the
presidents’ meeting because new opportunities were opened up for us
after the presidents’ meeting. Today, we have a lot to discuss at
the talks and they will continue in the near future.

Karabakh status priority issue in talks

[Presenter] Mr Oskanyan, the Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
Group, Yuriy Merzlyakov, commenting on Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov’s statement, also said that Armenia was ready to
withdraw troops from seven districts. What does it mean Armenia is
ready? This principle has not been questioned by the Armenian side
– Armenian troops will withdraw from the districts around Nagornyy
Karabakh. But there is yet no final agreement on how and when this
will be done, Merzlyakov said, adding that the issue of withdrawal
was not a matter of tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Does this mean
that the conditions of withdrawal will be discussed in the near future?

[Vardan Oskanyan] You know, I think that sooner or later we will
have to return to all the elements of the package option. The package
option for the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict consists
of four elements. This is not a secret. I can mention them. These are
the status of Nagornyy Karabakh, the issue of territories, refugees
and security problems. We have held discussions and agreement has
been reached on some of these elements and serious disagreements
remained concerning others. We managed to resolve the disagreement
regarding one of the elements, but this does not mean that these
issues will not be discussed further. The most important issue for
us is the status of Nagornyy Karabakh and without clarifying it,
it is senseless to discuss the others. There is positive progress
concerning the status issue, which opens up opportunities for the
discussion of other elements of the negotiating process.

Turkish premier made mistake by failing to meet Armenian leader

[Presenter] Mr Oskanyan, everybody was looking forward to a Kocharyan
– [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan meeting before the
summit. But it did not take place. The Turkish media reported every
day, quoting their government sources, that this meeting would take
place. The Turkish leadership took steps to organize this meeting
before the Council of Europe summit but they did not succeed.

[Vardan Oskanyan] I was surprised by what happened concerning the
Turkish-Armenian issue. I am surprised by the mistake of Turkish
diplomacy which has experience and history. Their mistake is based
on wrong calculations and assessment of the situation.

About 25-30 journalists arrived in Warsaw from Turkey, they came to
cover not the European summit but the Kocharyan-Erdogan meeting. All
those journalists wanted to ask us whether this meeting would take
place. I talked to them, and they said that they had come to cover the
meeting and they did not doubt that this meeting would take place. The
Turks probably expected us to propose a meeting. But this did not
happen. But after numerous statements by the Turkish side about a
possible meeting, it would have been naive to expect the Armenian side
to come up with the initiative, taking into account that the Turkish
side needed this more in the context of its European integration and
starting a dialogue with Armenia.

If the Turkish side had asked for or demanded a meeting with Robert
Kocharyan, I am sure that the president would have accepted the
proposal. He would have had discussions with Erdogan. After an
exchange of letters between the two leaders, Turkish diplomacy made
a mistake, undermining progress in Armenian-Turkish relations. I must
say that because of the Turks we made a step back in Armenian-Turkish
relations. Erdogan’s speech on the second day [of the summit] left
a bad impression and showed that generally, there is no progress in
Armenian-Turkish relations. This was the Turks’ second mistake.

In the context of European integration, the absence of relations
between Armenia and Turkey backfires on this country. Turkey is
scheduled to hold talks with the European Union by the end of this
year. In this context, it has been assigned serious tasks – to
recognize the Armenian genocide and open the borders. Now Turkish
diplomatic structures have to seek ways to restore the favourable
atmosphere in relations with Armenia that was created after the
exchange of letters between Kocharyan and Erdogan.

[Presenter] Thank you, Mr Minister.