THE ONLY WAY FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT IS MUTUAL CONCESSIONS, VARTAN OSKANIAN CONSIDERS

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 05 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “In spite of all
conversations about the failure of the meeting in Rambouillet, the
negotiations process is alive and there is still an opportunity to
continue it and to fix progress,” Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian declared at the April 5 joint press conference with Special
Representative of European Union on South Caucasian Countries
Piter Semneby. The Minister again repeated that the year 2006 is
very convenient for achieving progress in the negotiations process
and emphasized that we should work in the direction of achieving
progress in spite of the existing difficulties. “If Azerbaijan shows
the necessary will, I think we can achieve progress soon”. According
to Vartan Oskanian, it is desirable to achieve progress in the year
2006 but we should not exclude that “we can do something in 2007,
too”. As for the conversations about holding a meeting between the
Presidents in May, the Minister said that soon Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadiarov is to meet with American Co-chair of OSCE
Minsk Group Steven Mann and we can speak about the Presidents’ next
meeting only after “rapprochement is noticed in the positions of the
sides”. In response to Noyan Tapan correspondent’s question, whether
it comes that the Armenian side that gained a victory in the war is
more pliable than Azerbaijan, the Minister said that he does not agree
to this point of view. “I think our position is a good example and
lesson for Azeris as the conflict has no settlement by war but should
be settled through negotiations. And the only way for the conflict
settlement through negotiations is mutual concessions”. Meanwhile,
the Minister admitted that indeed Armenia “has made its part of
compromises” in the recent period. “Today we are on the frontier
line and have no place to go back. The moment came when Azerbaijan
should take the respective step for us to move the process ahead and
take it to the end”. P.Semneby said that the year 2006 will be very
important and EU should see what it can do for the settlement of the
conflict. As for non-ceasing bellicose statements of the Azerbaijani
side, P.Semneby stated: “I do not like these statements and during my
visit to Azerbaijan I declared that any settlement of the conflict
by war will have destructive consequences”. As regards the point of
view that the conflict parties deliberately drag out the negotiations
process for the purpose of gaining time, the EU Special Representative
declared that none of the sides will gain from the dealy of the
settlement. “I am sure that for Armenia this is continuation of the
process of isolation and for Azerbaijan this will mean increase of
the possibility of temptation to apply force and this is a dangerous
way. I think both of the sides realize their responsibility”.