THE QUESTION OF LACHIN AND A COUPLE OF MORE QUESTIONS REMAIN UNCERTAIN
By A. Haroutinunian

AZG Armenian Daily
08/10/2008

Karabakh Issue

"Armenia, in fact, is under blockade because of Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict," said Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov in an
interview to "Rossiyskaya Gazeta". "Armenia’s contacts with abroad
are very complicated. It is in the vital interests of the Armenian
people to remove the blockade as fast as possible," he added.

According to Lavrov, Armenia has only a couple of ways out of the
stalemate. "As soon as the conflict in Karabakh is settled, Turkey
will help Armenia in establishing normal contatcs with abroad due to
establishment of official diplomatic relations with Ankara".

In anyways, even before the crisis in Caucasus, which in this
case implies the august events in Georgia, there were considerable
opportunities for progress in Karabakh process, both due to meetings
of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents and to the OSCE Minsk Group.

Lavrov thinks that only a couple of questions are left to be settled
between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and that questions will be seemingly
settled during the next meetings of the Presidents of the two
countries. The Presidents are supposed to meet after the elections
in Azerbaijan.

Speaking of the unsettled issues, Lavrov said, "The most important
thing is the Lachin passage. The impression of Russia, as a member of
international mediation group, is that the settlement of that problem
is quite realistic."

Lavrov stressed that the August events and the difficulties that
they caused Armenia, show the necessity of swiftest settlement of
the Karabakh conflict.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress