FOREIGN MINISTER HORRIFIED MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

Lragir
Feb 13 2008
Armenia

On February 13 Member of Parliament Stepan Safaryan, Heritage Party,
stated at the Pastark Press Club that as a citizen of Armenia he was
horrified by the interview of the foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan
with Shant TV. The reason was Oskanyan’s comment on the plan to
exchange Meghri revealed by the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

According to Stepan Safaryan, Vardan Oskanyan said Armenia had given
such a response regarding Meghri that since 2000 this option has not
been discussed in the framework of the settlement of the conflict.

Stepan Safaryan says what caused his horror is that Vardan Oskanyan
used to deny that Meghri had never been considered at all. And if now
he announces something else, Stepan Safaryan says there is reason
to worry. He certainly thinks there is no issue of Meghri but at
the same time he says the Armenian government is being adventurous
regarding the Karabakh issue. Stepan Safaryan thinks that October 27
might have been the result of this adventurousness. As an analyst he
says several years ago he analyzed relying on U.S. State Department
information that the Armenian government had become involved in such
an adventure regarding the Karabakh conflict that the only way to
escape it was October 27. Stepan Safaryan says evidence to it is the
statement by one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in November 1999
during the OSCE summit in Istanbul that if October 27 had not happened,
an agreement on the resolution of the conflict would have been signed.

As to how the Heritage Party will act if Levon Ter-Petrosyan whom
it endorsed wins the election but his approach contradicts to the
approach of the Heritage Party, Stepan Safaryan says for the time
being their approaches are in harmony since the first president has
stated that the resolution of the conflict should be based on the
decision of the people of Karabakh. However, if Ter-Petrosyan and the
Heritage Party disagree over tactical issues, the Heritage Party will
not deviate from its approaches, Stepan Safaryan says.