RAFFI HOVHANNISIAN IN A HURRY

Panorama.am
19:56 01/09/2007

Last week, Heritage party’s president, Raffi Hovhannisian, came up
with another of his regular surprises. At a recent session of the
National Assembly, he put forth a bill recognizing the independence
of the Republic of Mountainous Karabakh.

This was something new for the Armenian political field, as no
political force here has attempted to such qualify their relations
with independent states and to change the accepted course concerning
Karabakh.

Explaining their proposal, "Heritage" member Larissa Alaverdyan said,
"I don’t see this as a sharp change from Armenia’s foreign policy
concerning Karabakh. It actually makes our course clearer." In her
words, there is a demand for the entrance of something new and fresh,
in this case the new clarification of Armenia’s position, during the
negotiation period, and the pronouncement merely satisfies this demand.

"I think this pronouncement will become a subject of negotiations of
the two presidents. It is finally time we take this step, and for them
to respond. Until now, Armenia has been the one to agree, respond,
and to react. Now it is time for Armenia to be more active, and for
the Minsk group to be the ones to respond," the parliamentarian stated.

The members of the other opposition party, Legal State, do not share
this approach. In the words of their vice-president, Mher Shahgeldyan,
the Karabakh issue is by all means a very important one for Armenia,
but if it were possible to solve the problem with this kind of
announcement, similar problems around the world would have already
been solved. "The thing is, at present negotiations are taking
place, and they include international organizations. In this case,
the negotiations must continue, and the question must be settled in
this way," he said.

Official reaction to Hovhannisian’s proposal has been negative. Foreign
Ministry press secretary Vladimir Karapetyan’s reaction is precise:
"The recognition of Karabakh has always been, and continues to be,
part of our foreign policy. But this has to be at the appropriate time,
when it will be most beneficial to us. This time has yet to arrive."