NKR PRESIDENT: AZERBAIJAN WILL HAVE TO SIT AT NEGOTIATING TABLE

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
March 12 2007

Today a meeting of the Nagorno-Karabagh Republic President Arkady
Ghoukassian with OSCE Minsk group French Co-Chair Bernard Fassier
was held at the NKR Permanent Representation in Yerevan. In the
course of the meeting the parties discussed the Karabagh conflict’s
current phase.

"Naturally, Bernard Fassier is aware of the fact that no solution on
the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict can be considered final without the
NKR leadership’s consent. However, unfortunately, not everything
depends on the mediators. There is a factor of Azerbaijan, which
stubbornly does not wish to sit at the negotiating table with the
NKR leadership", the NKR President stated at a briefing held upon the
talks’ completion. However, in the President’s words, if Azerbaijan
is really interested in the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict’s peaceful
settlement, it will have to sit at the negotiating table with the
Karabagh party.

When asked if there were contradictions in the stands of RA and NKR,
Arkady Ghoukassian noted there were really some disagreements, some
of which can be called serious. However, he rejected suppositions
that Armenia and NKR would be unable to elaborate a common viewpoint
on the conflict’s settlement. Answering ITAR-TASS question when,
in the President’s opinion, the conflict may be resolved, Arkady
Ghoukassian stated it would not be serious to speak of the exact terms,
however, the NKR was mostly interested in the rapid solution of the
conflict. Nevertheless, the NKR President stressed there were basic
principles Stepanakert will never deny.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress