ARAM SARGSIAN BELIEVES MANY POINTS IN FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT WILL
BE CHANGED AS SOON AS NKR PARTICIPATES IN NEGOTIATIONS

AZG Armenian Daily #145, 03/08/2006

Karabakh issue

"The visit of the OSCE MG Co-Chair Matthew Bryza showed that the NKR
authorities insists on NKR’s participation in the negotiations as a
main side," Aram Sargsian, leader of Democratic Party of Armenia,
chairman of "For Defence of NKR" committee, said. He stated that
"as soon as NKR participates in the negotiations, very many points in
the framework agreement package submitted by OSCE MG co-chairs will
be changed." Sargsian stated that the visit of Bryza still didn’t
give any answers to many unsettled urgent issues in the agenda
of the negotiations. He said that though this was a familiarizing
meeting for Bryza, his statement do not lose their force still. "It
seemed to me that one of the co-chairs is paid more attention.
We believe that equal and balanced attitude should be displayed to
all of the co-chairs. I absolutely didn’t understand the statements
of the Armenian Foreign and Defense Ministries that stated that the
basic settlement principles are acceptable for Armenia," Sargsian
stated. Sargsian emphasized that the most burning issue in the agenda
of the co-chairs is the deployment of the peacekeepers in the safety
zone around NKR. He added that in case the Armenian self-defense forces
are withdrawn from the five regions, the task for maintaining peace
will be obviously carried out by the peace keepers. He emphasized that
the deployment of the peacekeepers will break the geopolitical balance
in the region. "According to the OSCE MG format, the co-chairs can’t
participate in shaping of the peace keeping forces, which means that
Russian peace keepers will not be included among the peace keepers,"
Sargsian stated. He added that most likely NATO peacekeeping forces
would be deployed in the region. Sargsian assured that Armenia’s
consent for deployment of the peacekeepers would mean the change of
the geopolitical vector. "Russia is for preserving the status quo in
this issue, as it’s obvious that no peace can be maintained without
the peaceful negotiations, while any forced semi-agreements will
only cause resumption of the military conflict," he emphasized. At
the same time, he assured that in the near future their committee
is not going to carry out any actions of protest, as they still need
to follow the development of the events. "If RA authorities really
sign the suggestions announced by Bryza, our committee will lead the
movement against that agreement. We have enough force to achieve the
breakthrough, as this very structure of the committee participated in
removing Levon Ter-Petrosian from his position," Sargsian underscored.