ARMENIAN LEADER NOTES "VERY LITTLE HOPE" FOR PROGRESS IN KARABAKH TALKS

Mediamax news agency
5 Jun 07

Yerevan, 5 June: In an interview with Mediamax today, Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan said that he "does not know the reason
for the optimism" of the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The president was commenting on a recent statement by Matthew Bryza
that Armenia and Azerbaijan had made "substantial progress" towards
the resolution of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. He said that "if
the forthcoming 9 June meeting between Kocharyan and [Azerbaijani
President Ilham] Aliyev in St Petersburg is successful, the number
of key principles that the sides do not agree upon will be reduced
to close to zero".

Kocharyan’s comment was sent to Mediamax by the president’s press
service.

"I do not know the reason for optimism of the US co-chairman. The
current state of the negotiation process and also the known statements
by the Azerbaijani side in the past two months have left very little
hope for a positive result," Kocharyan said in his interview with
Mediamax.