ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN FMS TO MEET AGAIN TO DISCUSS KARABAKH SETLMNT
Itar-Tass News Agency, Russia
March 14 2007
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Vartan Oskanyan and
Elmar Mamedyarov, will meet again in April to discuss the Karabakh
settlement. The Armenian Foreign Ministry announced this following
the talks of the ministers held in Geneva on Wednesday with the
participation of the co-chairmen of the Minsk group of the OSCE for
Nagorno-Karabakh (Russia, France and United States).
"The meeting followed the visit to the region by French co-chairman
of the Minsk group Bernard Fassier who, on behalf of his Russian and
American colleagues, tried to get a clearer notion of the stances of
the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the run up to the foreign
ministers’ meeting," says the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s report.
"Despite the preparatory work, the talks proceed slowly," the Armenian
Foreign Ministry quotes Oskanyan as saying. "This time an attempt has
been made to discuss a second layer of details of the document on the
principles of settlement" of the Karabakh conflict, the minister said.
"Even though the sides have a clearer understanding of each other’s
positions, profound distinctions are apparent," Oskanyan said. "We
believe there still exist opportunities for progress to guarantee the
new meeting of the presidents, and we arranged for another meeting
in April," the minister said.
"Armenia adheres to the principles contained in the document that is
the subject of the talks," the foreign minister assured. "Despite
the fact that arrangements on numerous secondary questions are
still lacking, the principles contained in the document include
the fundamental questions essential for long-term settlement of the
conflict," Oskanyan said.
Although the talks were confidential, the mediators made public
back in June last the main provisions of the draft principles of the
agreement on the Karabakh settlement they referred for consideration
of Armenia and Azerbaijan. These are the framework agreement that,
specifically, calls for the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the
occupied territories in Azerbaijan, normalization of economic and
diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the stationing
of peacekeepers, and international economic assistance to the region.
And finally, a referendum on the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh
will be held at some stage.