FEWER ISSUES REMAIN TO AGREE ON

KarabakhOpen
24-05-2007 16:42:28

"Nothing is decided unless everything is decided." On May 24 the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs who mediate the talks over Karabakh reasserted
this approach in a news conference in Yerevan. Yuri Merzlyakov and
Bernard Fassier of the three co-chairs visited first Yerevan and
left for Baku this morning via Tbilisi. In Yerevan the co-chairs
met with the president, the foreign minister and the prime minister
of Armenia. They say there is progress, and they hope for the same
in Baku. The co-chairs did not visit Karabakh and did not meet
the leadership of Karabakh in Yerevan. Yuri Merzlyakov told news
reporters in a separate talk that he had had a telephone talk with
Arkady Ghukasyan.

Ghukasyan had told him he was busy and could not come to Yerevan
and the co-chairs were also too busy and did not have enough time to
visit Karabakh. Merzlyakov hopes that in about two weeks they will
visit the region again, this time all the three co-chairs together:
Fassier, him and Bryza. During the next visit they will go to Karabakh,
and if they do not have enough time, the leadership of Karabakh will
arrive in Yerevan and they will meet.

Generally the co-chairs say the involvement of the representative of
Karabakh in the talks at some moment is crucial. For the time being,
Armenia and Azerbaijan are negotiating the basic principles of the
agreement. In this connection Merzlyakov reminded that "nothing is
decided unless everything is decided." But he also says fewer issues
remain to agree on. There are no, and there cannot be new proposals,
there can be only details of implementation of the basic principles,
says the Russian co-chair. He says these details are discussed during
the meetings of the foreign ministers, whereas the co-chairs expect
global political approached from the meeting of the presidents.

According to Yuri Merzlyakov, the adoption of the basic principles
is important for the parties not to reject the agreement later as
they have done before. Merzlyakov says agreement on these principles
does not mean signing a definitive agreement. Elaboration of the
definitive agreement will start after agreement is reached on the
principles. The elaboration of a peace agreement will last long,
different specialists will be involved. Yuri Merzlyakov says the
agreement on the basic principles is essential to start work on the
agreement. He thinks the document that is on the ground is not such
as to satisfy both parties but it is balanced.

As to the militaristic statements of Azerbaijan, the co-chairs decline
to comment on them. They say they cannot comment on something they
did not hear.

Bernard Fassier says, however, that nobody in Moscow, Washington or
Paris thinks the war is a way to resolve the conflict. There is no
alternative to peace talks, the co-chairs say.