Karabakh leader doubts OSCE mediators have settlement plan

Mediamax news agency
20 Jun 05

YEREVAN

The president of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR], Arkadiy
Gukasyan, doubts that during their next visit to the region the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairmen will put forward “the complete scheme of the
final settlement of the conflict”, the NKR president told journalists
at a polling station on 19 June.

“We may guess what the mediators will come up with, but it will hardly
be the complete scheme of the final settlement of the conflict,”
Arkadiy Gukasyan said.

Commenting on Baku’s proposal on the need to establish dialogue
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagornyy Karabakh,
Arkadiy Gukasyan said: “It would not be bad if the Azerbaijani
community establishes dialogue with the Greek, Russian, Ukrainian and
other communities of Nagornyy Karabakh in the first place.”

The NKR president said that Baku’s continuos attempts to present
Nagornyy Karabakh as not a conflicting side but a mere community are
the evidence of Azerbaijan’s frivolous approach to the conflict
settlement. Arkadiy Gukasyan believes that “Baku’s unwillingness to
conduct direct dialogue with Stepanakert hampers the settlement, which
worries the Azerbaijani people”.