THE MEDIATORS PROMISE A "FAIR, BALANCED SETTLEMENT BASED ON MUTUAL CONCESSIONS"
Tatul Hakobyan

"Radiolur"
24.05.2007 12:23

For the first time after the parliamentary elections the OSCE Minsk
Group co-Chairs are in the region to prepare the meeting of the
Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents on June 10 in the framework of the
CIS non-official summit in Saint Petersburg. On May 23 the Russian
and French Co-Chairs had meetings with President Robert Kocharyan,
Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian.

Before leaving for Baku, on May 24 they summed up the results of their
visit at a press conference in the French Embassy in Yerevan. Bernard
Fassier said they will return to the region early June, and this time
Matthew Bryza will join them.

Merzlyakov said President Kocharyan has given a positive answer to
the suggestion to hold the recurrent meeting of the Presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan in Saint Petersburg. In Yerevan the discussions
focused on the main principles of the working document on the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict settlement. "We think there is certain progress,
and we hope that it will further develop in Baku," said Merzlyakov,
underlining that the positions of the parties still diverge on a
number of details of the settlement. The Russian Co-Chair did not
clarify which details he was speaking about.

"I dislike the concept "new suggestions," because everyone lays his
own sense in these words. The matter is not about new suggestions,
the basic principles are known. At least during the past year and
a half these principles have been the same, but there are some
nuances. Today the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are
negotiating the details of settlement, but we expected a more global
political approach on the part of the Presidents," Merzlyakov said.

"The Presidents should display political will. We cannot make decisions
instead of them," Fassier added.

On behalf of France, Russia and the US, the French Co-Chair assured
that none of the mediator countries views war as a way of conflict
settlement. "There is no resolution other than peace talks. War is
not a solution," Fassier underlined.

Will the meeting in Saint Petersburg be the last this year? Merzlyakov
said everything depends on the forthcoming meeting and it’s not
ruled out that another meeting will be needed to agree upon the basic
principles of settlement.

Merzlyakov said the question does not refer to signing the final
document by yearend. "We are working on the basic principles of
settlement. If it is approved by both sides, it will enable us to start
preparing the agreement," he said and added that after accepting the
basic principles, the parties will not be able to deny the suggestions
of settlement as it was the case before."

Merzlyakov said "the future agreement will not be 100% satisfactory
for all the parties, but as we think, it will be fair, balanced and
based on mutual concessions."

In response to the question about the involvement of Nagorno Karabakh
in the negotiations, Bernard Fasssier and Yuri Merzlyakov asserted
that after a certain point in the negotiations "the participation of
Nagorno Karabakh will be useful; and necessary."