OSCE MG APPRECIATES LAST CONSULTATIONS IN PARIS AS "VERY PRODUCTIVE"

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.02.2007 13:58 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Consultations in Paris were very productive,"
stated OSCE Minsk Group Russian Co-Chair Yuri Merzlyakov commenting
on the last meeting of Co-Chairs held February 15-16 in French
capital. He underlined the Co-Chairs met in Paris also with Armenian
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. Merzlyakov said this meeting too
was very useful.

The diplomat expressed regret for Elmar Mamedyarov’s absence. Asked
why he did not meet with Azeri President’s personal representative
in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict negotiations Araz Azimov, who was
participating in the international energy conference in Paris, Yuri
Merzlyakov answered that first; there wasn’t any request, and second;
according to the information of American Co-Chair Matthew Bryza,
Araz Azimov did not participating in the conference.

Commenting on Azimov’s statement that "Armenia steps back from its
stance on uncoordinated issues", Yuri Merzlyakov underscored "the Azeri
side really had put certain questions, but the Armenian side did not
give particular responses to them": "Those questions, from which as
if Armenia steps back, have not been discussed in a such level that
we could speak about deviation. That’s why to say that Armenia steps
back, I think, is not quite right. We have not discussed them yet in
order to agree with his opinion that Armenia steps back".

Yuri Merzlyakov one more time stressed uncoordinated issues in the
talks are of not only technical character, adding that A. Azimov’s
statement itself is an evidence that, perhaps, it is not only
technique.

The Russian diplomat underlined mediators as before, are trying to
organize a meeting between the FMs of Azerbaijan and Armenia at the
beginning of March, APA reports.