KOCHARIAN STILL KEEP SILENT

Aravot.am
03 Aug 06

Naira Mamikonian

"Some powers in Armenia indeed threaten Robert Kocharian’s position
if he agrees with the proposed "phase" version of settlement",
-Azerbaijani politician Eldar Namazov has announced.

The fact that both Azerbaijani and Armenian sides accept OSCE MG
co-chairs’ proposals on the NK conflict settlement, prove announcements
of official circles of two countries. Both countries have some
exceptions about return of territories and hold a referendum; anyway
the reasons of both sides on that occasion are quite different. For
example some powers in Armenia /ARF, some opposition parties, public
organizations/ are against the return of territories without specifying
NK status and the concept of referendum as well, considering that
the referendum of self-determination and independence has already
held once in NK. We should introduce an interview with Azerbaijani
politician Eldar Namazov published in Azerbaijani Â"Day.azÂ" where he
expresses his standpoint about all these. By the way, those standpoints
are similar to the adopted declaration of Azerbaijani politicians and
public men. Thus, to the question which are the advantages of the OSCE
MG proposals in comparison with the former proposals that are regarded
in official Baku as enough balanced and acceptable, he answered: "We
must stress that we have made corrections and interpreted from our own
position the text of those proposals in particular on two principles,
with which we haven’t agreed: about " special treatment" of Kelbajar
and Lachin liberation and the referendum. As the co-chairs have used
in their proposals expression, which can be interpreted equivocally,
so we have interpreted them in our own way according to our national
interests. That is, Kelbajar and Lachin must be liberated as well as
the rest of occupied territories and Â"special treatmentÂ" may refer
to the communication channels that pass trough those territories but
not territorial belonging of those regions. Only in case of taking
our interpretation into consideration we’ll accept that principle."
Talking about referendum in NK, E. Namazov stressed that the OSCE MG
co-chairs’ declaration about that point was rather scanty. "I should
stress, it isn’ t worth to be against the referendum because any
peaceful agreement, provides the use of referendum mechanism. For
example if the Azrmenian side agrees with NK status as a broad
autonomy within Azerbaijan, that autonomy will be impossible to
give them by Azerbaijani president’s or ministry’s declaration.
They should hold a referendum making relevant amendments in the Azeri
Constitution. So we aren’t against that referendum, we are against
for holding it only in NK and occupied Azerbaijani territories. The
best way after liberation of territories, return of refugees is that
to negotiate round NK status. If those negotiations give certain
results, a national referendum should be held on the model of coherent
status. Other versions with the help of which the Armenian side wants
to annex NK formally using democratic orders, won’t be acceptable
by the Azerbaijani side." I. Namazov also added: "The Armenian side
didn’t adopt those proposals in Rambue and Bucharest, Some Armenian
officials have declared lately that those principles are adoptable. A
lot of people are against it but R. Kocharian still keep silent."

–Boundary_(ID_YKP/MyH8LjdqH506O2JB 0Q)–