MATHEW BRYZA’S NEW INTERVIEW
Lragir.am
30 June 06
On June 29 Mathew Bryza, the OSCE U.S. Co-Chair, again gave transparent
comments on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. In fact, Bryza
repeated and completed the statements he made during the first
interview. In his new interview with Radio Liberty he mentioned
that over the past two years the presidents and foreign ministers
of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been unable to reach agreement on the
key principles set forward by the co-chairs.
Bryza said talk about recapturing Karabakh by force or any use of
force by any party is simply not helpful.
"It’s a mere statement of fact that my predecessor, Steven Mann, and
my current fellow co-chairs, have exerted all of the creativity and
all the negotiating energy that they could and they have gotten this
framework of core principles as honed as possible in their judgment,
such that the presidents, in their mind, need a little time to think
things over and decide whether or not they can accept or adjust this
framework. But what we’re saying in the statement is that there is
no more room for diplomatic creativity to make this piece of metal
shine a little bit more brightly," said Bryza, with regard to the
June 22 statement of the OSCE Minsk Group in Austria.
According to him, from a political aspect, the compromise that will
follow an agreement is so important that it can be made by the conflict
parties only.
The U.S. co-chair thinks that the pullback of Armenian troops from
the occupied territories may reduce tension. "That’s why it’s a
core element of our core principles. But the Armenians aren’t just
going to pull back the troops because we say, "Golly, gee, that would
help reduce tension." They’ll do it if they get something for it and
that’s precisely what these core principles are all about," stated
Mathew Bryza.
He mentioned that the recent statement reflects the efforts for the
pullout of troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
"Demilitarization is the phrase used for troop pullback, and that, as
the framework indicates, should be, or could be, accompanied by some
sort of process that would lead to a population vote, or a referendum
vote on the future status of Karabakh. I think that’s, in the Armenian
mindset, extremely important, so that’s what the Azerbaijani side would
have to offer the Armenians, along with the other things within this
statement to which I refer you. On the Azerbaijani side, I think that
they are willing to consider the possibility of some type of a vote on
the status of Karabakh if many other elements of this overall package
are present. What gets difficult is how you correlate the withdrawal,
or the redeployment, of Armenian troops with the timing of a vote on
the future status of Karabakh," said Mathew Bryza during his second
interview as an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair.