MEDIATORS TO DEVELOP AND DEEPEN CONTACTS WITH NKR
Gayane Movsesian

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
March 13 2007

"Everything is ready for a meeting of RA and AR Foreign Ministers
that will be held in Geneva March 14. If the parties display will, it
will be a success", OSCE Minsk group French Co-Chair Bernard Fassier
stated on the completion of current consultations with RA FM Vardan
Oskanian and NKR President Arkady Ghoukassian in Yerevan.

In the course of a press conference held in Yerevan March 12 the
French mediator said the call had been paid on behalf of his OSCE
Minsk group colleagues Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia) and Matthew Bryza
(the U. S.) and he expressed all the three Co-Chairs’ opinion.

According to Bernard Fassier, the meetings in Yerevan and Baku were
very useful, sincere and constructive. In his words, if the meeting
in Geneva is productive and the settlement’s basic principles are
formalized, there will appear a possibility to go on elaborating
them at the Foreign Ministers’ level and present them to RA and AR
Presidents. Kocharian-Aliyev meeting will become possible only after
Parliamentary elections to be held in Armenia May 12, the French
diplomat said.

Mr. Fassier reaffirmed the international mediators’ intention to
deepen contacts with the representatives of the Nagorno-Karabagh.

"Unless we considered the NK a conflicting party, we wouldn’t meet
with Mr. Ghoukassian. I met with him today and said meetings with the
representatives of the NK should not only go on, but also deepen",
he noted, adding the fact that the representatives of Karabagh did
not participate in the talks "is not OSCE MG Co-Chairs’ decision".

According to Fassier, when the talks’ participants start discussing
the issue of the NK status, the participation of the NK will become
necessary.

Answering the journalists’ questions, he again expressed negative
attitude towards the attempts to make various conflicts, which
differed in the history of appearance and the logic of development
and settlement, universal. In part, speaking of the Kosovo issue,
Bernard Fassier mentioned the fact that the conflict had inner aspect,
which was precisely indicated – "it took place in one country" and
the international community was actively involved in its solution;
the matter concerns " the presence of civil and military international
contingent in Kosovo".

As for NK, the conflict has different logic. "For a long time NK
had a status of autonomy within Azerbaijan. Moreover, there is outer
confrontation between Azerbaijan and Armenia. That is why we believe
the two conflicts cannot be compared", Bernard Fassier stated.

When asked if a question referring to the return of Armenian refugees
from Azerbaijani SSR was discussed as intensively as the issue of
displaced persons of Azerbaijani nationality, the French mediator
said the issue of refugees and displaced persons "is often raised,
unfortunately, too emotionally, pursuing political goals sometimes".

In the French mediator’s words, the talks of the refugees’ return were
premature: "the issue is too delicate and punctilious to be used to
achieve political aims. The return of the refugees requires scrupulous
preparatory work: the territory must be cleared of mines, destroyed
infrastructures should be restored, houses, schools must be built,
etc; otherwise the situation may be compared with a decision to build
a house beginning with the roof. However, it is much more difficult
to reestablish the logic of joint residence in the people’s mind and
heart. It assumes that the refugees and displaced persons have desire
and will to return, while the people residing there agree to receive
them". Bernard Fassier cited Bosnia and Herzegovina as a positive
example. "It is a brilliant example of establishing worthy conditions
for those who decided to return. However, it did not take place in
a day and it did not become possible everywhere. It was gradual work
carried out for 10 years. It did not happen by the decision of local
authorities, but the representatives of international mediators,
who worked there", Bernard Fassier remarked.