MINSK GROUP CALLS FOR PREPARING BOTH NATIONS FOR MUTUAL CONCESSIONS
AZG Armenian Daily #069, 19/04/2005
Karabakh issue
Mediators Meet with Oskanian and Mamediarov in London
On April 15, Vartan Oskanian, RA foreign minister, met with Steven
Man, (US), Yuri Merzliakov (RF) and Bernard Fassie (France), OSCE
Minsk group co-chairs, in London. The meeting was organized at the
initiative of the co-chairs and was held at the US embassy to The Great
Britain. RA Foreign Ministry informed that a discussion was held over
the issues of the Prague agenda. “The meeting in London was aimed to
prepare the possible meeting of RA and Azeri presidents in May.”
In fact, as Yerevan used to state earlier, no direct meeting between RA
and Azeri foreign ministers was held in London. The co-chairs also had
a separate meeting with Elmar Mamediarov in London. It is already known
that the next meeting of the Minsk group with the foreign ministers
will take place in Frankfurt in late April, where they will prepare
the meeting of RA and Azeri Presidents envisaged in mid May.
On April 14, Elmar Mamediarov told the Azeri Trend agency that
“we have good opportunity to make a decisive move in the Nagorno
Karabakh issue.” Emphasizing that the Prague process yields good
results, Mamediarov said: “The achieved agreements helped to agree on
the format of the negotiations. We expect that Russia, our friend,
partner, neighbor and a country in chair will take more active efforts
for the settlement of the conflict.”
“It’s already obvious for everybody that if we keep sticking to the
past, it will be hard to think of the future. They understand this in
Moscow, in Baku and I hope that this viewpoint is shared in Yerevan,
as well,” Mamediarov said.
On April 14, the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs released a statement on
frequent cases of violation of the ceasefire regime in the areas of the
conflict, before meeting with RA and Azeri foreign ministers in London.
The French embassy to Armenia gave the statement signed by Mann,
Merzliakov and Fassie, to Mediamax agency. Particularly, the co-chairs
expressed concern about “the substantial increase of violation of
the ceasefire in the course of the last few weeks that caused the
growth of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” as well as about
“the public statements on probability of a war.”
“The statements about a war make the current efforts directed to the
peaceful settlement of the conflict more complicated, increase the
hatred between the two nations and do not prepare the people for the
thought that they should live like neighbors and not like enemies,”
the statement says.
“At this important moment when the first step between the sides in the
format can be done in the direction of the agreement elaborated though
the mediation of the co-chairs, we call for the sides to prepare the
population of their countries for the balanced agreement that will
demand mutual concessions from both sides,” the statement said.
In fact, before the call of the co-chairs, the official Yerevan
has already begun to prepare the population for the possible mutual
concessions. Serge Sargsian, RA defense minister, informed earlier
that “the settlement of the issue will be painful for both sides,
as there is no concession without pain.”
“Today, we should accept that mutual concessions are unavoidable as
a result of the conflict settlement. But, whatever is the volume
of the mutual concessions, we shouldn’t speak much about them,”
Robert Kocharian said during the meeting with students. While on
Wednesday, Vartan Oskanian openly stated during the press conference
that the territories under the control of NKR are kept for security
guarantees. Thus, if NKR’s safety is secured, the territories are
given back.
It’s worth mentioning that the statement contains a hint about
a possible crisis in the conflict settlement process. On April 5,
Merzliakov said that “a package of suggestions” will be given to
the foreign ministers in London. Oskanian noted during the press
conference that they have exaggerated by calling that “a package
of suggestions.”
By Tatoul Hakobian