Armenia, Azerbaijan working on Karabakh settlement wording
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
July 15, 2005 Friday 12:10 PM Eastern Time

YEREVAN, July 15 — The OSCE Minsk group on Nagorno Karabakh said
Armenia and Azerbaijan are working on the wording of the Karabakh
settlement.

“Yerevan and Baku have made headway in certain issues of the Karabakh
settlement, they need to further specify and bring closer the wording
of other issues; it’s work on wording,” co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
group for Russia Yuri Merzlyakov said on Friday.

“After the meeting between the presidents of the two countries in
Warsaw we /co-chairmen/ mostly engage in trying to formulate the main
principles of the future settlement,” Merzlyakov said.

The parties discuss principles or the key elements of the settlement
basis. The Russian diplomat did not specify the principles citing
“the accord to keep the details of the discussion confidential.”

“That it was possible to achieve results, with our working on wording,
not on bringing the parties’ positions closer, shows that both sides
agreed to compromise,” Merzlyakov said.

In his view, an objective opportunity presented itself to make
considerable headway in the Karabakh issue.

“In the key elements of settlement, an understanding has been reached
on what will make up its basis; the work on settlement elements is
difficult and painstaking, but progressive,” the Russian co-chairman
said.

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Kazan in August,
within the framework of the CIS summit.

The parties have made considerable headway in discussion this year,
Minsk group chairman for the United States Steven Mann said. He
appreciated the close cooperation of the Minsk group members: Russia,
France and the United States.

Co-chairman for France Bernard Fassier said the Minsk Group countries
are just mediators in the negotiations, and cannot force the parties
to make any decisions.