ANY ATTEMPT TO RETURN NAGORNO KARABAKH TO CONDITIONS OF 1988 FRAUGHT WITH UNPREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES

Noyan Tapan
Oct 6, 2009

STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. On October 2, President of the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakian met Co-chairs of the OSCE
Minsk Group Robert Bradtke (USA), Yuri Merzliakov (Russian Federation)
and Bernard Fassier (France) and officials accompanying them who
arrived in Artsakh on the same day. A wide range of issues related
to the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict and regional
processes were discussed at the meeting.

The Head of the State once again underlined the necessity of
restoring the full-fledged negotiation format stating that it
would be impossible to reach the final settlement of the conflict
without full participation of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Bako
Sahakian underlined that for the comprehensive settlement of the
conflict it is necessary to look ahead instead of being guided by the
past. According to the President, any attempt to pull back Nagorno
Karabagh to the conditions of 1988 both in the terms of status and
administrative-territorial division are fraught with unpredictable
consequences and will bring the process to impasse.

The President drew the attention of the Co-chairs to the need of
activating efforts aimed at strengthening mutual confidence between
the societies, since for the resolution of the conflict the readiness
of the parties to settle disputable issues through sincere dialogue
is a necessary condition.

Artificial acceleration in this case is inadmissible. Bako Sahakian
underlined that militant and policy of Azerbaijan is among the most
important obstacles of the peace process.

Touching upon the Armenian-Turkish relations, the President noted
that this process does not have any relations to the settlement of the
Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict and welcomed the joint statement by the
Minsk Group Co-chairs concerning this very issue made the day before.

According to the Central Information Department of the Office of the
NKR President, issues related to the situation along the contact-line
were also discussed at the meeting held with participation of NKR
Foreign Minister Georgy Petrosian and Personal Representative of the
OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.