RUSSIA IS EFFICIENT INTERMEDIARY OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT PROCESS – MINISTER

Interfax
Nov 6 2008
Russia

The Moscow declaration of the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian
presidents is an attempt to update the positions of Azerbaijan and
Armenia, in particular, through the prism of the recent Caucasian
events, the foreign minister of the unrecognized Karabakh republic
Georgy Petrossian told the media on Thursday.

"The declaration of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia
shows that Russia is ready to be an efficient mediator in the Karabakh
settlement process," he said.

"The previous settlement process was not efficient because it did
not involve the most interested party – the Karabakh Republic, which
has become a state in full compliance with international laws,"
Petrossian said.

If Azerbaijan had been truly interested in settling the conflict,
it would have started negotiations with Karabakh long ago instead of
trying "to put pressure on Karabakh via various international entities
and countries and to mislead the world public," he said.

"Besides, the freedom and independent status of the Karabakh Republic
and the security of the Karabakh people are absolutely mutually
dependent elements of the Karabakh policy," Petrossian said.