ARMENIAN FM DESCRIBED AS "IMMORAL" THE BEHAVIOR OF TER-PETROSIAN AND STATED THAT THE EX-PRESIDENT "WILL STOP AT NOTHING"
Mediamax
February 13, 2008
Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian described
as "immoral" the behavior of the presidential candidate Levon
Ter-Petrosian, who speculates in the process of the pre-election
campaign with the use of the so-called "Meghri variant" of the
Karabakh settlement.
Mediamax reports that Armenian Foreign Minister said this late February
12 on air of "Shant" TV-Channel.
"What Ter-Petrosian is doing is a cheap pre-election trick,
this is immoral. And when he tries to relate his statements to the
terrorist act in the Armenian parliament, it becomes clear to me that
Ter-Petrosian will stop at nothing, and we will yet have the chance
to make sure of that", Vartan Oskanian established.
The Minister stressed that the document, which was published last
week by "Haykakan Zhamanak" newspaper and which Levon Ter-Petrosian
referred to during his latest rally, has never been a topic for
negotiation on the settlement.
"The idea of exchange of Meghri for Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to
a retired U.S. diplomat Paul Goble, the roots of which are in the
early 1990s.
I clearly remember that in 1994 the given idea was discussed with
the participation of the Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian, who
stated at one of the meetings that the proposal could be interesting,
if Armenia also gained the North part of Nakhichevan. However, I
do not contend that Ter-Petrosian was ready top exchange Meghri for
Nagorno-Karabakh, do I?", Vartan Oskanian stated.
The Foreign Minister said that in the course of 10 years of Robert
Kocharian’s rule, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs made 3 official
proposals on the settlement: the "Common state" conception, a plan,
which was discussed in Key West, and the latest proposal, based on
the "Prague principles". "I declare with all responsibility that in
neither of those proposals, there is no notion of handing Meghri over
to Azerbaijan. I, being the chief negotiator from the Armenian side,
never held such talks", Vartan Oskanian stressed.
According to the Foreign Minister, in various periods of time,
various plans appeared on the settlement, the authors of which were
independent states or groups of people. "I have many such proposals
in my box, but this does not mean that all of them became topics
for negotiations", Vartan Oskanian stated. He made it clear that
the document, which Levon Ter-Petrosian refers to, is a proposal,
belonging to this very category.
"The Armenian side repulsed with such determination all the
conversation on Meghri that after 2000 no one dared to forward this
topic anymore", Armenian Foreign Minister stated.
Vartan Oskanian categorically refuted the statements, according to
which on the eve of the terrorist act in the Armenian parliament
in 1999 there were discords in the leadership of the country on the
Karabakh issue.
"There was nothing of that kind, and I very well know what the
relations of Robert Kocharian and Vazgen Sarkisian were like. I believe
that it is time to let the dead to peace and hold discussions among
the living", Armenian Foreign Minister noted with bitterness.