AZG Armenian Daily #127, 08/07/2006

Nagorno Karabakh Settlement

NKR DEFENCE MINISTER: TODAY, THE ISSUE OF WITHDRAWING
NKR FORCES FROM REGIONS OCCUPIED IN THE WAR CAN’T BE
DISCUSSED

"Today, neither the issue of withdrawing NKR Armed Forces from the
regions occupied in the war, nor deployment of the peace keeping
forces there can be discussed, Seyran Ohanian, NKR Defence Minister,
said this at today’s press conference in Stepanakert.

"This is one of the latest points in the settlement process and first
of all, the sides need to agree about the first points, particularly,
the one concerning the issue of NKR self-determination," he said. He
said that occupation of the above-mentioned territories was not an
end in itself for NKR people. "We just needed to secure our safety
and maintain guarantees for peaceful life," Ohanian said, emphasizing
that NKR side was for peace from the very beginning of the conflict
and had to participate in the war. As for the mutual concessions,
Ohanian said that they can be shaped only in the course of the
negotiations and consequent implementation of all the points fixed
in the settlement formula.

In response to the question about the readiness of the NKR armed
forces in case the war resumes, he said that the armed forces of any
country should be constantly ready to resist any military actions. At
the same time he informed that NKR Army is quite an efficient one.

Defence Minister also expressed doubt about the efficiency of the
Azeri army, stating that the information about the growing military
budget of Azerbaijan is exaggerated. As for the misinformation on
burning territories controlled by NKR spread by Azerbaijan, Ohanian
said that the recent monitoring of the borderline points carried out
by the OSCE experts testified that the accusations of the Azeries were
false. He added that the sown area got burnt because of the shooting
from the Azeri side. "It’s strange to think that we would burn our
own sown fields," he said.

By Kim Gabrielian
From: Baghdasarian