ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER POSITIVE ON KARABAKH TALKS IN KAZAN

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
30 Aug 05

[Presenter] No changes have been registered in the process of settling
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict during the meeting in Kazan, but there
is a positive development, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
has said, while commenting on the meeting between [Armenian President]
Robert Kocharyan and [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev.

The minister pointed out that the meeting created working conditions
for the foreign ministers to continue negotiations and, most
importantly, the foreign ministers of the two countries have not
reached the deadlock today. The Armenian foreign minister shied
away from reporting details of the negotiations process noting that
the sides have not yet reached the stage when the public should be
informed about the issue.

Oskanyan has also touched on the CIS summit and positively assessed
the meetings in Kazan.

[Oskanyan] We, the foreign ministers, have not reached the
deadlock. Given the results of the meetings between the presidents
of the two countries, we still have more tasks and we will try to do
everything in order to move forward. As for the CIS, we have never
said that the CIS is a productive working organization. Of course,
it has shortcomings and, therefore, issues of reforming the CIS are
being discussed today. However, it would be incorrect to assess this
situation as deadly. I think that we can again revive this organization
by reforms and economic developments.