ARMENIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT HAILS KOSOVO’S INDEPENDENCE

ITAR-TASS
March 12 2008
Russia

Yerevan, 12 March: Yerevan advocates the free realisation of the
right of peoples for self-determination,Armenia’s President-elect
Serzh Sargsyan said on Wednesday.

"From this perspective we hail Kosovo’s independence, " he said.

However, the president-elect does not consider Kosovo as a "precedent"
for solving the Nagornyy-Karabakhproblem, as "we are not going to
recognise the independence of Nagornyy-Karabakh in a foreseeable
future," he said.

Armenia "should not consider Kosovo as a precedent for itself, as
the problem of Nagornyy-Karabakh substantiallydiffers from Kosovo".

"From a legal perspective, Nagornyy-Karabakh differs from other similar
regions, and we do not have the right toequate Nagornyy-Karabakh with
anybody," Sarkisyan said.

He added that Nagornyy-Karabakh "declared the independence in
accordance with laws of the USSR".