ARMENIAN MINISTER "CAUTIOUS" ABOUT FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT ON KARABAKH
Armenian Public TV
Jan 21 2009
[Presenter] Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan has said that he is
cautious about reports that a framework agreement on the Karabakh
settlement will be signed in the first half of this year. At a meeting
with journalists today Nalbandyan summarized the year 2008 and outlined
developments expected in the foreign affairs sphere this year.
[Passage omitted: presenter reports that Nalbandyan also answered a
question on appointing Armenian-born French singer Charles Aznavour
as Armenian ambassador to Switzerland]
[Correspondent] Armenia’s foreign policy will have a continuous
nature, being more proactive – this provision of the president’s
[election] manifesto lies in the basis of the 2008 activities of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Continuing efforts aimed at settling
the Karabakh conflict was and remains to be the number one priority
issue in Armenia’s foreign policy. Nalbandyan said that Armenia
shares the position expressed in Karabakh that no agreement can
be prepared between the parties to the conflict without Karabakh’s
participation. Nalbandyan said that speculations that something could
be decided without Karabakh were not serious.
[Nalbandyan] The Karabakh people should express [their opinion]
regarding this issue. The Karabakh people – we have said, there are
different ways, for example via a referendum – should have this right
to freely state how they want to live. And you can well suppose what
the Karabakh people may say.
[Correspondent] The foreign minister denied a statement made in
Azerbaijan that the [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairs had presented some
changes during their latest visit [to the region].
[Nalbandyan] The co-chairs have not presented any changes, at least
during meetings with us in Armenia. We discussed issues which are
connected with how to draw closer the positions during negotiations
based on the Madrid proposals and in the light of the statements [on
the Karabakh settlement] made in Moscow and within the OSCE framework
in Helsinki.