Pan Armenian News
May 19, 2005

MAMEDYAROV PASSES WISHES FOR REALITY

The Azeri foreign minister tells only some part of the truth and
deliberately changes accents.

The press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia has denied
the information that in the course of Warsaw negotiations with Ilham Aliev,
President Robert Kocharyan agreed to return the security zones around
Nagorno-Karabakh. It should be mentioned that the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mamedyarov announced on Monday about the
readiness of Armenian party to return the territories under control.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Mamedyarov’s announcement sounded sensational. He talked
about the readiness of Armenia to return the seven regions of the security
zone and the necessary to fix concrete dates for the withdrawal of Armenian
forces from those territories. Mamedyarov’s statement was treated with
distrust not only in Yerevan, but also in Baku. The Azeri press afforded to
suppose that Mamedyarov passes his wishes for reality. At the same time, it
is interesting that the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Arman
Kirakosyan has blamed Mamedyarov for breaking the confidentiality of the
negotiation process. Arman Kirakosyan did not mention whether Mamedyarov’s
statement was true or not. So, it can be presumed that the question of
returning the security zones has really been touched upon in the course of
negotiations. The thing is in what context was the question touched upon?

It looks like that Mamedyarov has told just some part of the truth,
deliberately changing the accents. Actually, Yerevan has never excluded the
possibility of discussing mechanisms and terms of returning the territories
under control in case Azerbaijan made some concessions concerning the future
status of Nagorno-Karabakh. But talking about concessions, Mamedyarov only
mentioned about the agreement to restart communications. Yerevan has
repeatedly announced that that formula cannot be acceptable. However,
nothing has changed up to now. Thus, Mamedyarov either conceals everything
that deals with concessions demanded by Yerevan or his statement was just a
canard. The first variant seems more logical.

What does the Azeri foreign minister conceal? The answer to this question
can be found in Turkish `Radical’ newspaper. In the Tuesday issue of the
paper it is said that after the talks with Robert Kocharyan Ilham Aliev met
Rejeb Erdogan and informed him about the content of the two-hour talk with
the Armenian leader. According to the paper, Aliev informed that the Warsaw
talks did not bring any results since no agreement was reached concerning
Nagorno Karabakh referendum and the status of Lachin region. This
information actually denies the information spread by Mamedyarov. At the
same time, the paper also gives grounds to guess what did the minister
conceal talking about the compromise of Azerbaijan in case of the return of
Armenian controlled territories. From the content of the Turkish
publication, it becomes quite clear that during the negotiations Robert
Kocharyan has again raised the issue of recognition of the referendum on the
future status of Karabakh in exchange for the stage-by-stage withdrawal of
Armenian forces from the security zones. This is not a new formula and if
Azerbaijan guaranteed the recognition of legal effect of the referendum, the
political leadership of Armenian could seriously consider the issue of
fixing concrete dates for returning the regions of Lower Karabakh to
Azerbaijan. (The recognition of the legitimacy of the referendum would mean
recognition of the independence of Nagorno Karabakh Republic, because it is
not hard to foretell the results of the referendum)

Thus, it is quite obvious that Elmar Mamedyarov has skipped the most
important part, concentrating only on points that are favorable for
Azerbaijan. Pro-governmental Azeri press and politicians have immediately
started promoting the minister’s legend about `the readiness of Yerevan to
accept the inevitableness of returning the occupied territories’. Milli
Majlis deputy Anar Mamedkhanov has even announced that he possesses
information about the order of returning the regions around Karabakh. He
says that Aghdam and Fisouly are going to be freed first, then Kelbajar and
Lachin. For all this Azerbaijan will only make a little compensation – will
agree to `ensure the security of Armenian community in Nagorno-Karabakh’.
And that’s all. It is worth mentioning that the author of this statement is
a captain of KVN (the merry and the quick-witted club) team. He has always
been perfect in making people laugh…

19.05.2005, “PanARMENIAN Network” analytical department

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress