ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Dec 1 2006

ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT WILL BE
PAINFUL FOR EVERYBODY

Even after the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, the
Armenian-Azeri problem is unlikely to be solved, Serzh Sarkisyan, the
Armenian Defense Minister and the Secretary of the National Security
Council under the Armenian President, said in the National Assembly,
Friday.

He emphasized that the priority for the Armenian side is the
recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence by Azerbaijan, as it
is the only guarantee of non-renewal of hostilities in the future.
The recognition of Karabakh’s independence by Azerbaijan is more
important than the recognition by 50 countries of the world. The
international recognition of NKR’s independence can only be an
additional instrument of pressure on Azerbaijan to acknowledge NKR’s
sovereignty.

Speaking of the latest meeting of Armenian and Azeri Presidents
Robert Kocharyan and Ilham Aliyev in Minsk, the minister noted that
despite the fact that the sides positively assess the meeting, there,
certainly, will be difficulties in the forthcoming meetings. The
settlement of the Karabakh conflict will be painful for everybody, he
said. If it were easy, the conflict would be already settled,
S.Sargsyan said, adding that it is meaningless to specify the time of
the conflict settlement.

Commenting upon the NATO summit’s statement that the North-Atlantic
alliance acknowledges the territorial integrity of South Caucasian
countries, S.Sargsyan pointed out that it is a natural statement.
Armenia also has announced for several times that it acknowledges
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, at the same time, it recognizes
also the sovereignty of Nagorno-Karabakh which, along with
Azerbaijan, gained independence after the disintegration of the
Soviet Union. He added that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
with Nagorno-Karabakh is out of the question.