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Demanding Concessions From Yerevan

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  • Demanding Concessions From Yerevan

    DEMANDING CONCESSIONS FROM YEREVAN
    by Yuri Simonjan

    WPS Agency
    What the Papers Say (Russia)
    August 1, 2008 Friday
    Russia

    TALKS OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH WILL TAKE PLACE IN MOSCOW, PROTESTS IN
    ARMENIA; Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers are to meet in
    Moscow and discuss Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

    Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers Edward Nalbandjan and Elmar
    Mamedjarov are meeting in Moscow today to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflict settlement. The Armenian delegation will be at a certain
    disadvantage because radical opposition in Yerevan headed by the
    first president Levon Ter-Petrosjan has scheduled a protest action
    for this day.

    Nalbandjan called a press conference prior to his departure for
    Moscow and said that the negotiations with his Azerbaijani opposite
    number had been arranged by the OSCE Minsk Group (United States,
    France, Russia). The diplomat said that Mamedjarov and he intended
    to discuss the OSCE Minsk Group's Madrid offers, the ones on whose
    basis the presidents of the two countries had pledged to continue the
    peace talks. Made public in November 2007, the offers in question
    constitute basic principles of conflict settlement. No details are
    known to general public, but foreign intermediaries unanimously call
    the plan "fair and well-balanced".

    Discounting minor disagreements, Yerevan and Baku cannot agree
    on what really counts and that is status of the Nagorno-Karabakh
    Republic. Azerbaijan calls it its own territory, Armenia insists on
    its sovereignty. Neither would even hear of a concession. For the
    Armenians, however, the situation is further complicated by the
    knowledge that any compromise with the Azerbaijanis - no matter
    how minor - will be condemned by the opposition as a sign of
    weakness. Nalbandjan called actions of the opposition in Yerevan
    unacceptable. "Claims of the opposition that ex-president Robert
    Kocharjan should be extradited to the Hague for the tribunal there
    are worse then absurd. They are shameful," the minister said. The
    opposition meanwhile continues the process of collection of signatures
    on the petition and claims to have more than 100,000 already.

    Supporters of Ter-Petrosjan who founded the Popular Movement and who
    question the outcome of the presidential election earlier this year
    (February 19) promise a major protest action in Yerevan today.

    The West in the meantime keeps badgering official Yerevan to continue
    the policy of compromises with the opposition. "Unless the authorities
    in Armenia do something to heal the split, tension in Armenian society
    will mount," David Kramer of the US Department of State said the other
    day. "All elements of society must participate in the dialogue and act
    responsibly but responsibility mostly rests with whoever wields power."
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