ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: OSCE MINSK GROUP ONLY MEDIATOR IN KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

ARKA
Oct 27, 2008

YEREVAN, October 27. /ARKA/. OSCE Minsk Group is the only mediator in
Karabakh conflict settlement, there are no other mediators, Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview with Armenian Public
Television.

He said that Armenia has never asked any country to carry out
a mission.

The head of state said the OSCE-brokered talks are based on Madrid
principles and "attempts to create a mess can’t contribute to the
peace process".

The Armenian leader also said that Russia is one of the Minsk Group’s
co-chair states and "President, Dmitry Medvedev’s invitation and his
interest in this issue are very natural".

"What for comments on Abdullah Gul’s statement, I should first of
all say that I am not in the habit of commenting other politicians’
statements, especially if our press publishes fragments taken out of
the context", presidential press office quoted Sargsyan as saying in
his televised interview.

The president repeated that the only mediator is OSCE Minsk Group,
but expressed willingness to accept also other efforts to settle
the conflict.

"Yes, I am convinced that Turkey can contribute to the settlement of
Karabakh conflict and think it is contributing right now – President
Gul’s visit to Yerevan and continuation of Armenian-Turkish talks
set a good example of solutions to major problems", he said.

The Turkish leader visited Yerevan on September 6 at his Armenian
counterpart Serzh Sargsyan’s invitation to attend a 2010 World Cup
qualifier between Armenian and Turkish nationals.

After that, information about the Armenian president’s alleged proposal
to Turkey to mediate the conflict settlement emerged in Turkish and
Azerbaijani newspapers.

In his televised interview, Sargsyan also expressed confidence that
"if Turkey opens the border and establish diplomatic ties with Armenia,
this will contribute a great deal to settlement of Karabakh conflict".

There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey and the
state border has been closed since 1993 on Ankara’s initiative.

Turkey has set a number of pre-conditions for improving bilateral
relations, namely, Armenia’s abandoning the policy of international
recognition of the Armenian Genocide and recognizing Turkey’s
present-day borders.

Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Artsakh, mainly populated
by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority
of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.

Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result,
Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions
adjacent to it.

On May 12, 1994 Bishkek cease-fire agreement, put an end to the
military operations.

Since 1992, negotiations over the peaceful settlement of the conflict
have been carried out under the OSCE Minsk Group’s mediation. The
group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France.