VAZGEN MANOUKIAN: NO SETTLEMENT CAN BE REACHED, IF AZERBAIJAN DOESN’T
ACCEPT THAT NAGORNO KARABAKH IS OUT OF ITS STRUCTURE

AZG Armenian Daily #135, 20/07/2006

Opinion

The statement by American Co-Chair Matthew Bryza about Minsk Group
resigning mediation between Armenia and Azerbaijan was a mere
attempt to exert psychological pressure upon the conflict sides,
Vazgen Manukian, leader of the

‘National-Democratic Union’ party, said. He believed that the Armenian
politicians usually exaggerate the influence of the OSCE Minks Group on
the authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan. He said that there was only
once in the history when the international structures forced a state to
cede territories to another: Adolf Hitler was given the Sudet region of
Czechoslovakia so as to prevent the war, but nevertheless it unfolded
a year after. He added that even if ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosian
had ceded the security zone territories, still Azerbaijan would not
stop claiming Karabakh for its own, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipe line would still go round Armenia. Vazgen Manukian admitted
that the new suggestions by the Minsk Group are more profitable for
Armenia than the previous ones that President Ter-Petrosian was about
to sign. He assured that in any case none of the project could insure
peace in Karabakh, as they do not provide for the determination of
the status of Nagorno Karabakh, the cause of the conflict. The new
project contains another dangerous term – return of Azeri refugees
to Karabakh, which can provoke new skirmish among the population.

By Marieta Khachatrian

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress