RIGHT OF NKR PEOPLE FOR SELF DETERMINATION SHOULD BE RATIFIED IN RELEVANT DOCUMENT
By Aghavni Harutyunian

AZG Armenian Daily
16/11/2006

"We had modest expectations from the meeting with Azeri foreign
minister Elmar Mamedyarov. I wouldn’t say that even these modest
expectations came true.

Anyway, I can say that a slight progress was achieved," Vartan Oskanian
said in the Interview with the RFE/RL. He said that "common terms
for agreement began emerging" in Brussels about the suggestions made
during the October 6 and October 24 meetings of the foreign ministers
in Paris and Moscow.

Anyway, Oskanian said that the negotiations should be continued,
moreover, he stated that the expression of the people’s in NKR will
remain a principle point for Armenia in the negotiations. "This is
one of the key issues and indeed this is a necessity for the Armenian
side. Either through a referendum or though another way, the right
of the NKR people for self-determination should be ratified in a
relevant document that should serve as a means for the settlement,
on its turn," Oskanian said.

In general, Oskanian said that the atmosphere of the meeting was
positive and the meeting itself was quite a constructive one. At the
same time, he said that he can’t say that certain agreements were
achieved. But one can feel in the context of these meetings that
the positions got closer in some way. "You may call that a flexible
approach or a compromise, I don’t want to give any labels. I can
only state that many of the common terms for agreement emerged in
the course of this very meeting," Oskanian underscored.

The Azeri side, in the person of Tair Taghizade, speaker of Azeri
foreign minister, stated that the negotiations in Brussels "were
complicated but constructive." Azeris do not exclude that the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan may meet in the course of the
coming OSCE Summit in Minsk.