Interfax News Agency, Russia
Aug 8 2008

N. Karabakh should be involved in conflict settlement process –
Armenian defense minister

STEPANAKERT

Armenian Defense Minister Seiran Oganian has insisted that
Nagorno-Karabakh officials should take part in negotiations on
settling the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh between Azerbaijan and
Armenia.

"Nagorno-Karabakh should definitely be actively involved in the
process of settling the Karabakh conflict," Oganian told journalists
in Stepanakert on Friday.

"In any case, questions that will arise at the last stage of the
settlement process will have to be discussed with the people of
Nagorno- Karabakh, and therefore, this will require the beginning of
new negotiations," he said.

Asked whether the current outbreak of violence in South Ossetia could
affect the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Oganian said, "This should
consolidate our people, because we can oppose any challenges only if
we are united."

In the meantime, Baku believes it has every opportunity to regain its
territorial integrity within the international law, Azeri Foreign
Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim said.

"Azerbaijan does not follow anybody in its policies, but, on the other
hand, I must point out once again that Azerbaijan has every
opportunity to restore its territorial integrity within the framework
of international law. And we will use these opportunities," Ibrahim
told journalists on Friday, when asked whether Azerbaijan could resort
to military force to resolve the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh,
something Georgia is apparently trying to do now with regard to South
Ossetia.

Ibrahim claimed that Armenia does not wish to resolve the Nagorno-
Karabakh conflict in a peaceful way.