ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER COMMENTS ON EX-PRESIDENT’S ELECTION PLATFORM
Mediamax
Jan 9 2007
Armenia
Yerevan, 9 January: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said
today in Yerevan that he "did not find any new thought" in the foreign
policy section of the election platform of former Armenian President
Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
Oskanyan said today at a news conference in Yerevan that he
expected to get acquainted with new approaches of the first president
[Ter-Petrosyan], as the latter actively criticized the foreign policy
of the current authorities over recent months, the Armenian Mediamax
news agency reported. "However, I did not discover any novelty,"
the minister said.
Commenting on statements by the former president’s supporters that
the Armenian authorities are currently conducting negotiations on
the settlement of the Karabakh conflict in line with the model which
resembles the one backed by Ter-Petrosyan in 1997, Oskanyan said:
"The sentence, which was backed by Ter-Petrosyan, did not contain
any hint on recognizing the Nagornyy Karabakh people’s right to
self-determination. In the option, which we are discussing today,
this right is central and is written in black and white."
Oskanyan said that "the Nagornyy Karabakh people would never accept
a settlement option backed by the former president".