AZERBAIJAN WILL BE DESTROYED BY THEIR OWN ANNOUNCEMENTS

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[04:09 pm] 05 April, 2006

“The Karabakh Conflict Has No Military Solution”

17 years later Peter Semneby has returned to Armenia with a new post
– as the EU special envoy to Southern Caucasus. In 1988 Mr. Semneby
arrived in Armenia to support the earthquake victims on behalf
of Sweden.

During the meeting with the RA Foreign Minister the EU special envoy
discussed two issues – the course of the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict and the Armenian-Turkish relations

“Mr. Talvitie, the previous envoy, created good background for my
activity, but my mandate is a little different. The EU wants to have
more active participation in the settlement of the frozen conflicts
in Southern Caucasus”, Mr. Semneby said during the meeting with the
journalists. As for how the activity of the EU will be revealed,
Mr. Semneby did go into details.

In any case he said that the UE highly appreciates the activity of
the French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk group and added, “There is a
real possibility to settle the conflict and we must use it. This year
is very important and I’m sure that both sides are eager to settle
the conflict”.

Encouraging as Mr. Semneby’s announcement was, the military
announcements of he Azeri high officers come to testify the opposite
– that Azerbaijan has no desire to settle the conflict via peaceful
negotiations. “I have told the Azeri high officers that I do not
welcome their announcements and they can be dangerous. I think my
message was clear”, Peter Semneby said.

According to Mr. Semneby, in case the settlement of the conflict is
postponed, the blockade of Armenia will continue, and development of he
economy will be hindered and Azerbaijan will be destroyed because of
the announcements to solve the conflict by the military way. Sharing
Mr. Semneby’s opinion, Vardan Oskanyan said, “The Karabakh conflict
has no military solution. The only way out is the negotiations and
mutual compromise. Armenia has already made compromise and cannot go
back. Now it’s Azerbaijan’s turn”.

By the way, on April 7 in Moscow the OSCE Minsk group Russian co-chair
Yuri Merzlyakov will meet Vardan Oskanyan in Moscow.