AZG Armenian Daily #143, 16/08/2005
Karabakh issue
STATEMENTS ON THE EVE OF KOCHARIAN-ALIYEV MEETING
A meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents is slated in Kazan
on August 26, two days after the foreign ministers’ meeting in Moscow.
The deputy of the US co-chair to the OSCE Minsk group, Elizabeth Ruth,
stated that she takes the Kazan meeting as “a real opportunity”. “We
have much belief in the formation of conditions for reaching peace
accord in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict”, Ruth said. The US diplomat
stated that in spite of the hopes pinned on the Kazan talks, one
should not expect singing a final document between Azerbaijan and
Armenia. Russian co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov noted that there is no
agreed document on Karabakh regulation so far. “This is the principle:
so far as few things are agreed, we may say nothing is agreed”.
Both statements were issued by the International Crises Group. The
Caucasus project director of the ICG noted that “it is possible to
reach an agreement in the conflict at the impending meeting of Azeri
and Armenian presidents in Kazan. The talks of the last year allow
us to make this claim”. The monthly report of the Group points out
that the media discusses the possibility of a referendum in Nagorno
Karabakh but Azerbaijan renounces this suggestion.
Another statement by the ICG, comprised of former high-ranking
officials, condemns Yerevan and Baku authorities for inertia in
forming the public opinion.
By Tatoul Hakobian