ARMENIA SEES NO KARABAKH PACT BEFORE 2008 VOTE

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Reuters, RFE/RL
Nov 1 2007

Armenian President Robert Kocharian played down suggestions on
Wednesday from a U.S. envoy that a preliminary deal with Azerbaijan
over Nagorno-Karabakh will be possible before March.

On Friday U.S. deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian
affairs, Matthew Bryza, said he thinks a framework agreement between
the two sides is possible before Armenia’s presidential election,
expected next February or March.

But Kocharian said that is unlikely. "The negotiation process is a
definitive process but I am not so much of an optimist to assume that
before the presidential election we will reach a concrete result,"
he told Armenian television.

Kocharian said comments by the Azeri government and military are
still too aggressive for any real progress to be made at the moment.

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian echoed the pessimism in separate
comments on Wednesday. "The latest statements by the co-chairs are
a bit more optimistic than reality," he told RFE/RL during a visit
to Prague.

"When you look at Azerbaijan’s actions in real life, outside the
negotiation framework, and the positions it takes in international
bodies and the statements it makes at the highest level … one can
arrive at the conclusion that Azerbaijan today is not ready for an
agreement on that document," said Oskanian.

President Ilham Aliev and other Azerbaijani leaders have blamed the
Armenians for the conflicting parties’ failure so far to resolve the
Karabakh conflict.