WHAT HAVE WE COMPROMISED?
A1+
15-07-2005
“This summer there is more progress than last summer”, the OSCE Minsk
group co-chair Steven Mann evaluated the course of the settlement
of the Karabakh conflict. And if there is progress, according to the
Russian co-chair Yuriy Merzlyakov, “it is the result of the compromise
of the two sides”.
As for what compromise the sides have made, the co-chairs did not
inform considering it confidential. Neither did they speak about the
possibility of organizing a referendum in Karabakh, as “There is an
agreement not to make details public”.
The OSCE Minsk group co-chairs arrived in the press conference
with a delay of almost an hour. As Yuriy Merzlyakov commented, the
meeting with the RA President Robert Kocharyan lasted longer than
anticipated. According to him, the meeting was held in an atmosphere of
sincerity and was as circumstantial as that with the Azeri President.
After the May meeting of the Armenian and Azeri Presidents, the
co-chairs, according to Merzlyakov, tries to formulate the main
clauses of settling the conflict. Part of them is ready, other still
need improvement. The main result of this regional meeting, according
to the co-chairs, is that it has been cleared out that Kocharyan and
Aliev will meet at the end of August in Kazan during the meeting of
the CIS countries heads council. And the Foreign Ministers will meet
on August 23 in Moscow.
The American co-chair Steven Mann said that there are still unsolved
issues and disagreements between the two countries, but there are
also objective conditions which will allow settling the conflict till
the end of the year. “Although there is a possibility that the issue
will be settled till the end of the year, there are no guarantees
for this. Another 100 years may be needed for its solution”.
The co-chairs stressed once more that they are only mediators, and
even if they prepare a document of agreement, the final decision must
be made by the Presidents of the two countries.