NO SPECIFIC PROGRESS ANTICIPATED HAROUTYUN GEVORKYAN

Hayots Ashkharh Daily – Armenia
26 June 07

KIRO MANOYAN, person in charge for the ARF ‘Hay Dat’ Bureau and the
Central Office of Political Affairs was the guest-speaker of "Pastark"
club yesterday

The speaker insisted on the prognoses made as far back as a year
ago, i.e. the regional developments and the geopolitical situation
in the Near East as well as the superpowers’ concerns in connections
with the Turkey-Iran relations do not make it possible to anticipate
significant or essential progress in the Artsakh settlement process.

K. Manoyan substantiated his viewpoint in the following manner: "Being
interested parties, the mediators are now occupied with other problems,
and Artsakh is not a priority for them. The countries representing
the Minsk Group are now resolving other conflicts. The Artsakh issue
is not of key importance, especially considering that the ceasefire
has been quite stable without the peacekeeping forces for more than
13 years now. This is the reason the peacekeepers do not strengthen
their pressure upon the conflicting parties either."

The guest speaker of the club attached a particular importance on
the attitudes of the conflicting parties in the current situation:
"The outcomes of the talks depend on that; whereas Azerbaijan has
struck an attitude of refusing the arrangements. This was what happened
during the last meeting between the Armenian and Azeri Presidents in
St. Petersburg.

So, there are no grounds to expect the negotiating parties to make
a specific progress in the near future."

There are also other impulses not allowing for any progress in the
talks till the end of 2008 or in 2009. They are the Presidential
elections to be held in Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation
and then in the United States; in addition to the Parliamentary and
Presidential elections to be held in Turkey.

To have the groundwork for solving the Karabakh issue in favor of the
Armenian side, Kiro Manoyan emphasized several requirements, "The
only thing we can do during the upcoming two years is to stimulate
the repopulation programs and then liven up the campaign diplomacy
on all layers, including the state, Parliamentary and public levels."

With regard to the upcoming Presidential elections in the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic, "Dashnaktsutyun is running for elections to show
the kind of actions the ARFD structure will undertake should anyone
have an intention to cede a territory. And if the candidate we support
becomes elected, he will cede no territory. There may be a change
of borderline, because we also have our demands, after all. But
Dashnaktsutyun is against handing over any territory".

The speaker also reported that the successive progress has been
made in Chilly in recognizing the Armenian Cause and the Armenian
Genocide. "The major part of the activity was carried out by ‘Hay
Dat’ Committee of Chilly under the leadership of the local Communist
Party. The unanimous decision made by the Parliament of Chilly is
important in that the country does not have a large Armenian community,
and to say that the decision results from pro-Armenian lobbying or
pressure is difficult.

Let us also note that Chilly has ratified a treaty on rather close
military cooperation with Turkey. So the approval of the resolution
is a manifestation of a purely political stance from a place quite
unexpected for Turkey.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress