ARMENIA WON’T MAKE FUNDAMENTAL CONCESSION IN KARABAKH ISSUE

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.07.2008 13:44 GMT+04:00

Resolution of the Nagonro Karabakh conflict is unlikely in the near
future, a Russian expert said.

Armenia will never make fundamental concession in the issue, Mikhail
Alexandrov, head of the Caucasus department at Moscow’s Institute for
Commonwealth of Independent States, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter
during a news conference in Yerevan.

"Armenians should put up with the fact that there will be no progress
for a long time. The world is experiencing global processes caused
by the economic crisis which will probably entail U.S. withdrawal
from Iraq and decline of NATO. These processes will lead to shift in
geopolitical balance in the region," he said.

As to the format of talks, the expert said no one except for Baku
wants to replace the OSCE Minsk Group. "Transfer of the issue to
another instance will change nothing," he emphasized.

"Ilham Aliyev seems to be irritated at Serzh Sargsyan’s victory in
the presidential election. Western countries have obviously assured
Aliyev that with Ter-Petrossian coming to power in Armenia, the
Karabakh problem will be resolved in favor of Azerbaijan. However,
it didn’t happen, so much the better," Alexandrov said.