HEAD OF REPUBLICAN PARTY FRACTION: NK CONFLICT TO BE SETTLED IN 2012

ARMINFO News Agency
September 19, 2006 Tuesday

The Karabakh conflict will be settled in 2012, Galoust Sahakyan,
Head of the Republican Party fraction, said at a press-conference in
"Mirror" club, Tuesday.

He doesn’t share the optimism of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen
that there will be progress the peace talks in 2006. Sahakyan also
said that the Karabakh conflict settlement doesn’t at all depend
on Armenia, Azerbaijan or Nagorno- Karabakh. "The Karabakh conflict
settlement depends on super-states, for whom Armenia is just a toy",
he noted. Sahakyan expressed confidence that the peace process
will not reach a deadlock. The settlement depends on the formation
and consolidation of the Armenian statehood. He pointed out that
the conflict can’t be resolved by the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents, this question must find a national solution. The Armenian
people will agree only to a settlement scenario stipulating either
Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence or its joining Armenia. "Perhaps,
it is because of the Armenian side’s position of principle that the
problem settlement is delayed, however, Armenia will never change
Nagorno- Karabakh’s independence for the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline or the
Kars-Tbilisi railroad", Sahakyan said.