ARMENIA THANKS LANKA

Ceylon Daily News

April 19 2008
Sri Lanka

Foreign Minister of The Republic of Armenia Vartan Oskanian thanked Sri
Lanka for not supporting the non-binding resolution "on the situation
in occupied territories of Azerbaijan".

Oskanian in a letter to Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said.

"I write to thank you for not supporting the non-buinding resolution"
on the situation in occupied territories of Azerbaijan" passed the
UN General Assembly with 39 votes last week.

Although an overwhelming majority of UN Member States did not support
Azerbaijan, the existence of this resolution has emboldened the
Azerbaijanis.

We sought to block this process from the introduction of the agenda
item to the vote on the resolution earlier this month. We asked that
countries follow the lead of the mediators.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (France, the US and Russia) voted
against the resolution, because we knew that Azerbaijan would use
such language to reject the compromise approach of the negotiation
process and insist instead on their one sided solution, citing the
text of the resolution.

The consequences of this resolution will do lasting damage if
appropriate responsive measures are not quickly taken. Combined
with Azerbaijan’s confidence in their increased military capacity,
the existence of this resolution will aggravate the adversarial
environment and further debilitate a combustible region.

We believe that the international community must clearly signal to
Azerbaijan that they cannot be guided by this resolution and cannot
renege on the commitments expressed in the negotiating document on
the table. Thanks you again for your readiness to support the peace
process".