OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS PROPOSE TO DETERMINE STATUS OF NAGORNO KARABAKH BY VOTE

ArmInfo
2007-06-07 13:29:00

"Though we held intensive but constructive meetings at the Foreign
Ministry and President’s Office in Baku. We determined the issues
to be discussed in the meeting of the Presidents in St Petersburg,"
Russian co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov told a press
conference in Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan, APA reports.

"There remained little number of unsettled issues. Baku meetings
created hope that the meeting of the Presidents will be a constructive
and significant event".

French Co-chair Bernard Fassier said he hoped that Yerevan meetings
will be as constructive as that of Baku. US co-chair Matthew Bryza
hoped that St Petersburg meeting can be constructive "We hope that
St Petersburg meeting will be a turning point. Even step by step we
achieved to raise the number of discrepancies. Bu there is still much
work to be done". Answering questions of journalists, Bernard Fassier
said if there is a turning point in the negotiations, the co-chairs
will be optimistic on the settlement of the conflict. "The turning
point can happen that time if the presidents instruct their Foreign
Ministers to draft a peace agreement on the conflict. Besides, for
achieving turning point the peace agreement needs basic principles
to be clarified. We debated some basic principles in Rambouillet. We
increased this number in Bucharest and Minsk. If we can increase
the number of basic principles on the settlement of the conflict in
St. Petersburg it will be good.

Yuri Merzlyakov commenting on a peace agreement stated that the parties
to the conflict should take into consideration that peace agreement
would not completely satisfy both parties. "Since we speak about a
fair peace agreement, then the parties should take into consideration
that only 50% might be achieved. Any agreement is a compromise,"
he said. Bernard Fassier said that the parties should be ready to
compromise. "Both peoples should be prepared to compromise. The
peoples should also be prepared for peace," he said. Matthew Bryza
touching on the status of Nagorno Karabakh said that co-chairs have
proposed to determine the status by vote.

"We proposed that the status of Nagorno Karabakh be defined by
vote. The sides should define where voting should be conducted. OSCE
Minsk Group can not define how to call this voting. The Presidents
are responsible for that," he said.