BAKO SAHAKYAN AND SERGE SARGSYAN DISAGREE

Lragir.am
13:22:48 – 27/10/2008

"Nagorno-Karabakh is ready to start to negotiate with Azerbaijan
without preconditions and discuss any issue relating to the settlement
of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani conflict, however, not to detriment of
our independence and security," NKR President Bako Sahakyan told
reporters after the military exercise in Karabakh.

"The independence and security of Karabakh are not to be subject
to bargain and manipulation," Bako Sahakyan noted, underlining that
the territories liberated in the early 1990s are set down in the NKR
Constitution and defined as a security belt.

If for the president of NKR the liberated territories cannot be
subject to bargain, for Serge Sargsyan it is not so, which Serge
Sargsyan expressed in an interview with the H1 channel of Armenia. He
reminded that the settlement of the Karabakh issue should be based on
the principles of Madrid, which supposes the return of territories
as well. He also underlined that Azerbaijan must recognize the
independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, Karabakh must have a land border
with Armenia, and the international organizations and leading powers
should guarantee the security of Karabakh.

After watching football in Yerevan and negotiating with Serge
Sargsyan the Turkish president Abdullah Gul made two important
statements. First, Serge Sargsyan agreed to return the territories,
second, Serge Sargsyan asked him to mediate the Karabakh issue. In
Karabakh, Serge Sargsyan commented on these issues on the Public
TV channel, and said the Karabakh issue should be resolved through
the Minsk Group-mediated talks. It means the mediation of Turkey
is ruled out. Nevertheless, Serge Sargsyan has not refuted Abdullah
Gul’s statements, and it is not clear to the society whether Serge
Sargsyan had told him those things or Gul is lying.