Nagorno-Karabakh status connected with return of occupied lands
By Tigran LIloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 30, 2005 Monday 2:54 PM Eastern Time

YEREVAN, May 30 — There is connection between questions of the status
of Nagorno-Karabakh and restoration of the occupied territories around
it, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan said here on Monday.

The minister stressed that public discussion of separate components
of the peace process in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict may
lead to misunderstanding and set back the positive changes at the
talks. Such changes began to manifest themselves after the recent
meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Warsaw.
Oskanyan said new opportunities opened in the Karabakh settlement
after that meeting.

The minister said his next meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mamedyarov is not yet scheduled. Prior to the talks with his
Azerbaijani counterpart, Oskanyan intends to meet with the co-chairmen
of the Minsk group of the OSCE for Nagorno-Karabakh. According to his
forecasts, the meeting with the mediators will be held in June and,
possibly, outside of Armenia.