VARTAN OSKANIAN: THE KARABAKH ISSUE HAS NO SOLUTION OTHER THAN THROUGH NEGOTIATIONS
armradio.am
31.03.2008 16:16
The international community should send a clear message to Azerbaijan
to end the approaches of denial, sit at the negotiation table
with Armenia and Karabakh, try to settle the Karabakh issue in a
mutually acceptable way, RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said
during today’s joint press conference with the head of the Ago
Group of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, Ambassador
Per Sjögren. The Minister noted that it’s very bad that Azerbaijan
does not wish to meet and presents this fact in a very distorted
way. "Armenia has neither requested, nor proposed to organize a meeting
in Bucharest. The proposal came from the Co-Chairs, and our response
was positive. Azerbaijan is playing a very dirty game. What they are
doing is consistent with their latest steps – the attempts to dissolve
the Minsk Group, refuse from the document on the table born as a result
of work of the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides. Let them not juggle.
It has been formed with their consent, now they are trying to refuse
from it," Vartan Oskanian underlined. He assessed as negative the
ceasefire violation by Azerbaijan, the militant rhetoric, the attempts
to transfer the question to the UN.
Azerbaijan failed the meeting between RA President-Elect and the
President of Azerbaijan on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in
Bucharest. According to Minister Oskanian, their strategy is so obvious
that whatever they do to conceal it, they will not succeed. "They
are incorrect; the problem has no solution other than through
negotiations, and the talks cannot be based on something different
from the self-determination of the people of Nagorno Karabakh: the
Azerbaijani side should have no doubts here," Vartan Oskanian said.
As for Azerbaijan’s assessment of the domestic political situation
of Armenia, Vartan Oskanian noted that this behavior is consistent
with other steps of Azerbaijan. "Azerbaijan had better address its own
matters instead of expressing opinion about other countries. Azerbaijan
is the last country on the globe that can say anything about the
internal developments ad democracy in Armenia," the Minister noted.
The Head of the Ago Group, Ambassador Per Sjögren noted that dialogue
is the only way of resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh issue. According
to him, joining the Council of Europe Armenia and Azerbaijan assumed
the responsibility to resolve the conflict peacefully and to reach
that it is necessary to continue the negotiation process within eh
framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.
–Boundary_(ID_k+zreTNq2qjHDV4yzx+mfA)–