FASSIER: “NK CONFLICT CAN BE SOLVED IN A WAY THAT SATISFIES THE SIDES 80%”
Today, Azerbaijan
April 12 2006
Bernard Fassier, French co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group said at the
press conference in Baku today that the co-chairs intend to continue
the Prague process in an intensive way as it was in the previous year.
The co-chair reminded the statistics of the meetings held last year.
He said that the co-chairs met with Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign
Ministers for 12 times and visited the region for three times in
2005. OSCE Fact-Finding Mission investigated illegal settling in the
occupied territories, met with one President for seven times and
with the other for eight times and organized two meetings between
the Presidents.
“The objective of the all meetings was to determine main principles
of peace agreement. The talks at Rambouillet were to increase the
number of agreements. Regrettably, the Presidents could not reach a
consensus on main principles,” Fassier said.
The Minsk Group co-chair stressed both sides are responsible for the
failure. He said he shares the opinion “there should be a peace that
satisfies both sides” voiced by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev
during his talks with him.
Fassier also said that he will visit Yerevan tomorrow and the co-chairs
will meet in Moscow following that. American co-chair Steven Mann
and Russian co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov will visit the region by the
end of April. He also said the co-chairs might pay a joint visit to
the region by the end of April.
“The co-chairs will meet in Moscow in May to consult together on
the talks held in April, and to determine the base of future peace
agreement and will visit the region in May. The objective of the visit
is to organize the meeting of the Presidents,” the co-chair reported.
Bernard Fassier hopes the co-chairs will be able to make both
Presidents agree to the meeting. The French diplomat thinks there exist
opportunities to achieve improvements. Admitting that decisions will
be very difficult, the co-chair underlined that there is no peace
agreement that can meet interests of both sides 100 percent.
“However, there is a way out that can satisfy both sides 80 percent,”
he emphasized.
Fassier reiterated that war is not the solution way.
Commenting on the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s new proposal
to Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers, the co-chair said that
the new proposal has not been made by the United States only.
“Condoleezza Rice conveyed opinions shared by the three co-chairing
countries,” he concluded.
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