Armenian aide plays down chances of balance change in Karabakh talks
Arminfo
7 Mar 05
Yerevan, 7 March: The balance that has developed in the negotiations
to resolve the Karabakh conflict will remain unchanged for some time
because at the present stage no-one is interested in the situation
changing in favour of either of the sides, the Armenian president’s
national security adviser, Garnik Isagulyan, has told Arminfo.
The adviser said that the Karabakh peace process was moving ahead
steadily and that the Armenian side had nothing to worry about.
“Meanwhile, our main objective is to boost the combat readiness of
our army so that it should not be inferior to the armies of the
neighbouring countries,” Isagulyan said.
He expressed his confidence that the Armenian side was not worried
that the world’s superpowers might try to put pressure on Armenia to
find a speediest solution to the Karabakh conflict.
“We are following political processes not on the basis of official
statements of different countries, but on the basis of in-depth
analyses of the developments unfolding in the world at large and in
the region in particular, and on the basis of reports by state bodies
of different countries on the situation in Armenia and Karabakh. And
as long as these reports have nothing negative about us, there is
nothing to worry about,” Isagulyan said.
At the same time, he said a deterioration of the situation in the
region runs counter to the interests of both eastern [as given] and
European countries, not to mention the USA.
As far as Washington’s statements about the recognition of
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity are concerned, Isagulyan said: “We
don’t see these statements as reflecting the final and official
position of the USA because the Karabakh issue has not been fully
resolved yet and the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group, including a
representative of the USA, are still working to resolve the conflict.
We are sure that as long as the Minsk Group works in its present
format and as long as a peace agreement reflecting Karabakh’s status
has not been signed between Karabakh and Azerbaijan, we have to treat
all such statements calmly, but at the same time, we have to
safeguard our own position.”
[Passage omitted: reported details]