Russia & CIS Presidential Bulletin
December 3, 2007
ARMENIA TO CONTINUE KARABAKH NEGOTIATIONS DESPITE UPCOMING …
Yerevan is ready to continue the Karabakh settlement negotiations
despite the presidential elections due in 2008, Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian told Interfax in Madrid.
We keep working on [the settlement]. True, the elections are ahead,
but we do not link them to the negotiations. We are working, and the
cochairmen [of the OSCE Minsk Group] can visit the region, he said.
The international mediators will visit the area in late December or
the middle of January and carry on the negotiations, he said.
At the same time, Armenia will be unable to give enough attention to
the Karabakh issue during the pre-election period, Oskanian said.
Certainly, we will concentrate with the elections and will be unable
to give much attention to Karabakh. Yet we will stay involved in the
[settlement] process, he said.
The independence of Kosovo will doubtlessly set a precedent for other
conflicts, although each conflict is peculiar, he said.
We have always said that all conflicts are different and each has its
own way of settlement. In general, precedents are significant and,
like it or not, we will face the effects. However, we do not link the
solutions of Kosovo and Karabakh problems. The Karabakh negotiations
are progressing normally, the minister said.
Karabakh has chosen its future, the self-determination. We will
continue negotiations on the basis of the elaborated principles no
matter what happens to Kosovo, Oskanian said.
On the other hand, we cannot disregard the Kosovo precedent. If
Kosovo becomes independent, no one can tell us that others won’t get
independence. There is no quota on freedom, he said.