Armenian minister urges Azerbaijan to agree to mediators’ recent proposal
Mediamax news agency
24 Jul 06
Yerevan, 24 July: The Armenian side hopes that during his upcoming
visit to the region the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew
Bryza, can persuade Azerbaijan to return to the talks on the basis
of the mediators’ recent proposal, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan told a joint news conference with the European Union special
representative for the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, in Yerevan today.
"We have more than once said that we are ready to continue the talks
based on the mediators’ proposal. If Azerbaijan agrees to return to
the talks we will have a chance to start a new negotiation stage,"
Vardan Oskanyan said. "It will be a pity to lose a proposal which
has been the outcome of long negotiations." At the same time, Vardan
Oskanyan said: "If Baku turns down this proposal this will complicate
the situation."
The Armenian foreign minister recalled that in recent years Azerbaijan
had declined two proposals of the mediators – the proposal of a
"common state" and the settlement formula discussed by the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Key West in 2001.
Commenting on whether Matthew Bryza would put forward new ideas,
Vardan Oskanyan said that "new ideas do not emerge out of the blue". He
admitted that the US mediator might propose some new formulas regarding
nuances in the framework agreement, noting at the same time that he
did not expect issues concerning the fundamental principles of the
peace agreement to be changed.