Lragir, Armenia
Jan 14 2008

ARMENIA MUST REJECT THIS STATUS

Nagorno-Karabakh is ahead of Kosovo regarding the grounds for
self-determination, Member of Parliament Stepan Safaryan, Heritage,
and the leader of the National Democratic Party Shavarsh Kocharyan
said in a news conference on January 14. According to Stepan
Safaryan, the Prague process on the Karabakh conflict which started
in 2004 is coming to an end because Robert Kocharyan, one of the
participants of the talks, is leaving office soon, and the co-chairs
cannot see a guarantee for the effectiveness of the process. Stepan
Safaryan says currently a modified option of the stage-by-stage
solution of 1998 is negotiated.

The first guarantee of effectiveness of the talks, according to
Shavarsh Kocharyan, is the participation of Karabakh in the talks as
a full-right party. According to the leader of the National
Democratic Party, the notions of stage-by-stage and package solutions
are conventional and often mislead the public, whereas it is
necessary to clarify the basic issues. Shavarsh Kocharyan thinks
Armenia must act as a guarantor of the security of Karabakh but has
no right to discuss the status or territories of NKR instead of
Karabakh. According to the leader of the NDP, the government of
Armenia should not discuss whose option is more favorable or who will
return more or less territories but should employ the basic approach
that Karabakh is a conflict side. Shavarsh Kocharyan says Albania
never negotiated instead of Kosovo. The leader of the NDP who
supports the presidential candidate Vazgen Manukyan says the new
president of Armenia must announce that he will not participate in
the talks if it will be viewed as representation of Karabakh to the
talks.

Shavarsh Kocharyan says his stance on Karabakh is the same as the
stance of the candidate that he supports. Stepan Safaryan also shares
this stance, so he also thinks that the role of Armenia in the talks
should be limited, and Karabakh must be a full-fledged party of the
talks. However, Stepan Safaryan accuses the government of Karabakh,
saying that it complains of its absence at the table of the talks but
does not display sufficient political will to replace Armenia as a
negotiator representing Karabakh.