(Corrected)Armenian defence minister dismisses Azeri statement on
Karabakh autonomy
Mediamax news agency
1 Jul 05
(Correcting the year in the last paragraph to “1998”. A corrected
version of the item follows.)
Yerevan, 1 July: Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan has
described as “empty words” the statement of the Azerbaijani leadership
about its readiness to grant Nagornyy Karabakh the “highest decree of
autonomy” and some “preferential conditions”.
The Armenian defence minister said that similar proposals “could have
a certain value 20 year ago if they had been submitted by [Azerbaijani
ex-President] Heydar Aliyev,” Mediamax new agency reports.
Sarkisyan also said that the Armenian leadership has not deviated from
the principles of settling the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict which were
voiced when they came to power in 1998 and described as groundless the
statements that Yerevan keeps to “a defeatist position”.