THE WEST PRESSURIZED ARMENIA
by Yury Simonyan

WPS Agency
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 30, 2009 Monday
Russia

The Minsk OSCE group considers concessions of Yerevan to be a guarantee
of solving the Nagorno-Karabakh problem

NEGOTIATIONS ON RESOLVING OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT TAKE
PLACE IN DIFFICULT SITUATION; A large forum dedicated to problems
of unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) takes place in
Vienna. Diplomats, members of the Minsk OSCE group (US, France and
Russia), representatives of civil societies of Azerbaijan, Armenia
and NKR take part in the forum that partially takes place behind
closed doors. According to the intermediaries, the liberation of the
Azerbaijani districts adjacent to NKR by Armenia is one of conditions
for progress of the negotiation process.

A large forum dedicated to problems of unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic (NKR) takes place in Vienna. Diplomats, members of the Minsk
OSCE group (US, France and Russia), representatives of civil societies
of Azerbaijan, Armenia and NKR take part in the forum that partially
takes place behind closed doors. According to the intermediaries,
the liberation of the Azerbaijani districts adjacent to NKR by Armenia
is one of the conditions for progress of the negotiation process.

Co-chair of the Minsk OSCE group from France, Bernard Fasie, states
that negotiations between Yerevan and Baku take place in a difficult
situation. According to him, the recognition of NKR as an independent
state (even Armenia does not do this), as well as an attempt to return
this territory to Azerbaijan may turn into a new war. For positively
changing the current situation, "the most realistic is return of
territories controlled by Armenian military to Azerbaijan and working
out of a provisional status of Nagorno-Karabakh acceptable both for
Baku and for Yerevan taking into account security guarantees." The
French mediator added, "Another part of the problem cannot be solved
now and self-determination of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh
may be possible in 5-10 or 15 years after return of the Azerbaijani
community to NKR."

In the past, top-ranking representatives of NKR said that liberation of
the adjacent districts that they called "buffer zone" and considered
the most important element of security was risky not only from the
military standpoint. The reason is that one of these districts is
a water donor for NKR and handing it over to the Azerbaijani party
means a threat of remaining without drinking water.

The official spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Armenia,
Tigran Balayan, says that the official stance of Yerevan has not
changed. Armenia advocates solving the problem only by the way of
negotiations, a return of representatives of NKR to the negotiation
process and priority for the principle of self-determination.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress