OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS LEFT BAKU FULL OF HOPE AND EXPECTATIONS FOR PROGRESS
Tatul Hakobyan
“Radiolur”
25.05.2006 13:32
Last evening the statement of the mediators on Karabakh conflict
resolution was read at the Russian Embassy in Baku. According to the
statement, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the senior diplomats
from US, Russia and France left Baku full of hope and expectations
for progress. Today the international mediators held talks with RA
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan. Later they will be received also
by President Robert Kocharyan. Before departing the mediators will
issue a joint statement for the press.
In their statement issued in Baku yesterday the mediators underlined
that ” the time has come for both parties of the conflict to agree
upon the major principles of settlement.”
“The two countries should prepare their societies not for war but for
peace,” the statement says. The document notes that “the disputes in
Baku were constructive.”
Minsk Group Co-Chairs Steven Mann, Yuri Merzlyakov and Bernard Fassier,
as well as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigori Karasin, US Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried and Director on Political
Issue of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Stanislas de Laboulaye
had a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev and Foreign
Minister Elmar Mamedyarov.
Issues related to the important aspects of future settlement were
discussed during the talks. Reference was made to the opportunities
for the meeting of Armenian and Azeri Presidents in the future. On
behalf of their countries and the international community, the
mediators assured that the conflict can be resolved solely in a
peaceful way. According to preliminary information, the recurrent
meeting of Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will take place June
5 in Bucharest.
The Co-Chairs and the senior diplomats characterized this joint
mission of theirs as an extraordinary event. The joint statement
issued in Baku says that this visit should be conceived as a proof
of the seriousness the mediators take the resolution of the Karabakh
conflict and especially of the conviction that the parties are in a
stage when a mutually beneficial agreement is achievable.
Yesterday, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov criticized
the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.
“The statements of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on development of
new suggestions on resolution of the Karabakh conflict do not provide
grounds for optimism. With such statements the Co-Chairs are solely
willing to raise the importance of their activity in the public eye,”
Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister noted.
“No doubt, the Co-Chairs should justify their activity, therefore,
they periodically voice statements on new ideas,” Azimov said.
