FOREIGN MINISTER DENIES ARMENIA OFFERED TO EXCHANGE TERRITORY WITH AZERBAIJAN

Shant TV
Feb 13 2008
Armenia

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has denied that Armenia
ever offered to exchange Meghri District in the south of the country
for the unrecognized republic of Nagornyy Karabakh during settlement
negotiations with Azerbaijan. Oskanyan also criticized presidential
candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s approach to the Karabakh settlement
when he was president in the 1990s.

Speaking during a studio interview broadcast by private Armenian
Shant TV on 12 February and repeated on 13 February, Oskanyan said:
"Discussion of giving Meghri as a territory to Azerbaijan was never
present in any official or semi-official document."

On 9 February, the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, which is close
to Ter-Petrosyan, published what it says was a draft settlement
agreement proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in 1999. The
document said that Armenia had agreed to cede Meghri District to
Azerbaijan in exchange for Nagornyy Karabakh together with the
adjoining Armenian-occupied Lacin District.

Apparently referring to suggestions that the assassination of
Armenian Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan in a terrorist attack on
the parliament in October 1999 was linked to disagreements over the
Karabakh settlement, Oskanyan denied that the territorial exchange
plan had led to "disagreements within the Armenian authorities".

Oskanyan said that President Robert Kocharyan, who replaced
Ter-Petrosyan in 1998, had "brilliant relations" with Vazgen Sargsyan.

Referring to Ter-Petrosyan’s position as president on the so-called
"package" settlement option, which envisaged autonomy status for
Nagornyy Karabakh within Azerbaijan, Oskanyan said he "cannot accuse
Levon Ter-Petrosyan of giving Karabakh to Azerbaijan", because
Ter-Petrosyan "did not sign the document… nor did he make it public".

However, Oskanyan criticized Ter-Petrosyan’s position on a
"phased" settlement approach that would start with the return of
Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani districts surrounding Karabakh. "We
could accuse Ter-Petrosyan over the phased [option], saying that
Levon Ter-Petrosyan was ready to return territories without making
clear the status of Nagornyy Karabakh."

Noting that Ter-Petrosyan "presented it [the phased option] to the
judgement of the people in an interview and at a news conference",
Oskanyan said, "This means that he believes he agrees to this document,
that the negotiations are over, he considers it to be the right route,
and presents it to the people’s judgement."

Only the last 12 minutes of Oskanyan’s interview was monitored. No
further processing is planned.