Armenian President: ‘Territorial swap’ scenario has never been on the
negotiating table

2008-02-16 22:04:00

ArmInfo. The "territorial swap" scenario has never been negotiated by
the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, President of Armenia
Robert Kocharyan said during his TV interview today when asked to
comment on such a statement by presidential candidate Levon
Ter-Petrossyan.

They say a bear has seven songs and all are about honey. So, our
oppositionists have seven songs and all are about Meghri. It was one of
their key topics during the presidential election 2003.

Then I explained the situation. Today, I am ready to explain it again.
Under my presidency we have received three official proposals from the
OSCE Minsk Group. The first proposal – "common state" – was made in
1998 by the then foreign minister of Russia Yevgeny Primakov; the
second – in Key West, the third – a month ago.

None of the scenarios have been considered by the National Security
Council – as Ter-Petrossyan claims – as none of them are fully
acceptable.

The idea of territorial swap was suggested by US political scientist
Paul Goble. It was just mentioned as a possible way to solve the
problem. Nobody tried to impose it on us. Nobody even tried to suggest
it officially.

We discussed this possibility with just one of the OSCE MG co-chairs.
We just tried to understand if it was acceptable and if it could help
us to move forward. If they had given positive answer, it would have
become the MG’s official proposal. But the idea was rejected by both
the Armenian and Azeri parties. The key argument of the Armenian party
was that it was not willing to lose its border with iran.

I have never seen the document Levon Ter-Petrossyan is talking about.
This document has never been mentioned after 1994 when it was discussed
by the National Security Council in the presence of Vardan Oskanyan.
And now after so many years they have remembered this subject again and
are trying to speculate on it.

In the last years we have proved that we have never considered this
possibility seriously: we have laid an Armenia-Iran gas pipeline, we
are beginning to build a water power plant, we are discussing the
possibility of building an oil refinery and a railroad. We are doing
all we can to show that we are not going to sacrifice our border with
Iran.

Yes, we did discuss this proposal but it is one of 7-8 different
proposals. Different experts suggest different scenarios. The present
proposal of the MG co-chairs is based on the right of a nation to
self-determination.