KOCHARIAN DOES NOT SHARE PEACE BROKERS’ OPTIMISM OVER KARABAKH CONFLICT
ARMENPRESS
Oct 31, 2007
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS: Presidnet Robert Kocharian said today
finding a final solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict before
next year’s presidential election in Armenia was unlikely. He said
he did not either share the optimism of international peace brokers
from the OSCE Minsk Group.
Nevertheless, Kocharian admitted that some progress has been made
in the negotiation process, but added that he was not as optimistic
as to believe that some sort of a final framework agreement could be
signed before the elections.
"The negotiation process continues and it has both positive and
negative sides," Kocharian told journalists today after inauguration
a shooting ground in a Yerevan outskirt.
Kocharian’s remarks come after the US cochairman, Mathew Bryza, was
quoted by Azerbaijani newspapers as saying last week that Azerbaijan
and Armenia could sign a framework agreement next year to resolve
their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
"There is a possibility that prior to presidential elections in
Armenia, which will take place in the spring of next year, some
kind of a framework ‘gentlemanly" agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict could be signed by the heads of Azerbaijan and Armenia,"
Matthew Bryza, who is also a deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state,
was quoted as saying.
Kocharian blamed today Azerbaijani leadership and their war rhetoric
for the failure to forge ahead, saying this is why he was not
optimistic. "There are threats and we have to take them into account
when designing our policies," he said.