ALIEV, KOCHARIAN IN FRESH KARABAKH TALKS
By Harry Tamrazian in Prague and Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 28 2006
The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan were meeting in the Belarusian
capital Minsk late Tuesday for crucial peace talks which international
mediators hoped will produce a breakthrough in their long-running
efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliev came face to face for a third time
in less than a year on the sidelines of a summit of former Soviet
republics making up the Commonwealth of Independent States.
An Armenian diplomatic source told RFE/RL that the talks, held at the
Russian embassy in Belarus, began in the presence of Russia’s Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov and the chairman-in-office of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel
de Gucht. French, Russian and U.S. diplomats co-chairing the OSCE’s
Minsk Group were also in attendance before the two leaders continued
their discussions in a tete-a-tete format, the source said.
Kocharian’s spokesman, Victor Soghomonian, was quoted by the Russian
Regnum news agency as saying that no statements are likely to be made
after the talks.
The Minsk talks were widely seen as the last real chance to settle
the Karabakh conflict before national elections that are due to take
place in Armenia and Azerbaijan next year and in 2008. The mediators
have indicated that failure to cut a framework peace deal now would
keep the conflict unresolved at least until 2009. They arranged the
latest Armenian-Azerbaijani summit during a visit to Baku and Yerevan
last week. It followed a series of negotiations between the foreign
ministers of the two South Caucasus states.
Those talks reportedly centered on what the Minsk Group co-chairs
call "complementary elements" to their existing peace plan that was
discussed by Aliev and Kocharian during their two previous encounters
earlier this year. The two men failed to reach any far-reaching
agreements, contrary to unusually high expectations of a breakthrough
in the Karabakh peace process.
The Minsk Group plan calls for a gradual resolution of the dispute
that would lead to Armenian withdrawal from most of the Azerbaijani
districts surrounding Karabakh and culminate in a referendum on
the disputed territory’s status. Officials in Yerevan have said the
peace formula is largely acceptable to the Armenian side. Official
Baku’s position on the issue is more ambiguous, with Aliev repeatedly
stating that he will never recognize Karabakh’s secession from Soviet
Azerbaijan.
The unpublicized "complementary elements" are aimed at helping the
parties bridge their differences. Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov indicated after
their recent talks that they managed to make further progress towards
that goal.
However, Kocharian sought to cool fresh talk of Karabakh peace during
a visit to Germany earlier this month, saying that he is not optimistic
about the success of the Minsk meeting.