ARMINFO News Agency
September 14, 2006 Thursday
TRANSFER OF KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS FROM OSCE TO OTHER FORUMS IS
CATEGORICALLY UNACCEPTABLE FOR ARMENIA: ARMENIAN FM ACTING SPOKESMAN
Armenia accepts and respects the right of each country to present a
question or an agenda item at the UN, acting spokesman of the
Armenian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Karapetyan says to ArmenPress news
agency in response to the question: How does Armenia assess
yesterday’s initiative by GUAM, and the vote that followed, to place
protracted conflicts on the agenda of the UN General Assembly?
Karapetyan says: Although this particular item has reached the
General Assembly Agenda according to UN procedures, however the fact
that the UN General Committee rejected this initiative and that the
item passed into the General Assembly with a mere 16 in favor, 15
against, clearly indicates the mood of the international community.
The initiative has been presented by GUAM, of which Azerbaijan is a
part. The fact that Azerbaijan has presented such an initiative in
such a forum is evidence again that Azerbaijan is backing down from
the right of self-determination identified in the last version of the
negotiating document that the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have
put on the table, as well as from discussions surrounding the right
of Nagorno Karabakh to determine its status through a referendum.
On the other hand, if Azerbaijan’s purpose is to delay and postpone
the settlement process within the OSCE framework with the intention
of later transferring that process to other forums, that is
categorically unacceptable for Armenia. In that case, Azerbaijan must
sit around the negotiating table with Nagorno Karabakh.