UN RESOLUTION ON FIRES IN SECURITY ZONE CALLED ACCEPTABLE IN NAGORNO KARABAKH

REGNUM
September 14, 2006

"Taking into account the final result, in particular, the intention
to send an OSCE mission to the region, supported by UN experts, in
order to asses long-term and short-term threats, which may lead to
a regional ecological disaster, the UN resolution may be considered
to be acceptable for the NKR," Nagorno Karabakh Foreign Minister
Georgy Petrosyan is quoted by a REGNUM correspondent as stating,
commenting on resolution concerning fires in territories, occupied
by NKR, adopted at 60th session of UN General Assembly. The minister
stressed, such process is a logical sequence of the initiative of
the Karabakh authorities.

In particular, Georgy Petrosyan informed that the NKR authorities
were concerned with fires, which seriously damaged the republican
agriculture. In that connection, the NKR foreign ministry addressed
with a note to the Office of OSCE Chairman-in-Office personal envoy on
September 15, requesting to carry out crisis monitoring in the zone,
which borders on Azerbaijan.

Two weeks later, the OSCE mission monitored those areas, as a result
of it, the OSCE chairman-in-office personal envoy submitted a report,
in which accusations of the Azerbaijani side of alleged arsons
of settlements in the NKR security zone were refuted, the minister
reported. According to him, the NKR authorities were first instances,
which addressed to OSCE, requesting to send a monitoring group to
the region. The fact was dissembled by OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs,
submitting a report to UN General Assembly.

Mr. Petrosyan assured that NKR was ready to receive new OSCE mission
in order to uncrown Azerbaijani myths.

According to him, putting a question at the UN itself is unacceptable,
as well as some formulations in the resolution. "Attempts to transfer
to UN questions, which should be solved by the OSCE Minsk Group,
may not contribute to talks’ advance; they just postpone possible
prospect of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement," the minister
stressed. According to him, the fact should be specially stressed
that the resolution and, in particular, its content is "a result of
the consensus between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is lately a rare
occurrence; it should be welcomed, especially when the atmosphere
of trust is lacking between the parties." According to the minister,
such projects should be discussed only with participation of all three
conflict parties in order to avoid problems during their decisions’
implementation. "NKR positions remain unchanged; we are going to
cooperate with international institutions; we are ready to contribute
to functioning of the OSCE expert group, comprised of specialists
from neutral countries," Georgy Petrosyan stressed.