Outside countries seeking Garabagh mediation – Armenian vice-speaker
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Posted July 11 2006
Baku, July 10, AssA-Irada — The current situation around the
Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict allows some
countries to enter the format of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group,
Armenian parliament vice-speaker says.
Such attempts have been particularly made by Great Britain, but other
countries and their parliaments offering assistance in this respect
have also become active, Vaan Ovannisian told a news conference in
Yerevan on Monday.
"If peace talks are not carried out under the auspices of the three
Minsk Group co-chairs [from the United States, Russia and France],
the activity will begin in different directions and on parliamentary
level in particular," the vice-speaker said, noting that the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly is taking interest in the issue.
Ovannisian said that if the Garabagh conflict is tabled in other
organizations, "the success for Armenia should not be expected to
come easy".
"With other entities getting involved, we will have to start from a
scratch," he said.*