ARMENIAN POLITICIAN DOWNBEAT ON US MEDIATOR’S VISIT

Arminfo
1 Aug 06

Yerevan, 1 August: "The visit of the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
Group, Matthew Bryza, showed that the leadership of the Nagornyy
Karabakh republic [NKR] firmly insists that Nagornyy Karabakh should
become the main party to the negotiating process," the leader of the
Democratic Party of Armenia and chairman of the steering committee of
the Union for the Defence of the NKR, Aram Sarkisyan, told an Arminfo
correspondent today.

He expressed confidence that "as soon as Nagornyy Karabakh becomes
a party to the negotiations, many provisions in the draft frame
agreement proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group will be changed".

On the whole, Bryza’s visit did not answer most of the
important questions regarding the negotiating process, Sarkisyan
said. "Naturally, this was a factfinding visit by Bryza, however, it
is clear that his statements remain in force. It seems to me that great
attention was paid to one of the co-chairmen and his remarks were taken
with a shiver," he said. "We consider that there should be the same
balanced attitude to the co-chairmen. I absolutely do not understand
the statements by the Armenian foreign and defence ministers that the
main principles of the settlement proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs
are acceptable to Armenia," Sarkisyan said.

[Passage omitted: Sarkisyan speaks about the possible deployment of
peacekeepers in Nagornyy Karabakh]