MERZLYAKOV: THIS YEAR OUR VISITS TO KARABAKH WILL BE MORE OFTEN THAN BEFORE

KarabakhOpen
16-01-2008 12:43:38

After the meeting with the NKR President Bako Sahakyan on January 15
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs held a news conference.

"The results are very good. If you remember, in our previous visit we
promised to visit more often. We were able to arrive this time. We
wanted to do this very much because we needed to share some ideas
about the talks with Bako Sahakyan. We had a useful exchange of ideas,
and we promised that this year our visits will continue and will be
more frequent," said the Russian co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov.

He said their purpose is not to reach agreement on the document of
Madrid because this document includes the proposals of the co-chairing
countries on the basic principles of settlement, and systemizes
and formalizes them. He says they were put down and extended to the
sides. "We discussed the basic issues with Bako Sahakyan, and it was
very useful. However, he was aware of them and nothing was new to him,"
the Russian co-chair continued.

The French co-chair Bernard Fassier said the aim of the visit is
to get to know the stance of the sides. "However, we explained and
discussed all the issues relating the settlement, both the situation
in Azerbaijan and the relations among the countries of the region. Our
goal was not to reach a definite result," Bernard Fassier added.

With regard to the possibility of reaching agreement in 2008 Bernard
Fassier reminded that the co-chairs have described the current year
as deciding.

"Both sides have good will, which allows hoping for a breakthrough
in reaching agreement on the basic principles this year. If it were
possible before the Armenian election, it would be fine but not so
easy," Bernard Fassier said.

Yuri Merzlyakov says there are favorable conditions for reaching
agreement on the basic principles of settlement, and the sides are
willing. He also says there are difficulties. "There are few issues
which were not agreed on but it is becoming more difficult to reach
an agreement because some of them are important for the sides. For
the time being, it is difficult to reach mutual agreement. But we
will continue," the Russian co-chair added.