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Massis Weekly Online - Volume 27, Issue 48 (1348)

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  • Massis Weekly Online - Volume 27, Issue 48 (1348)

    Massis Weekly Online
    http://MassisWeekly.com
    VOLUME 27, ISSUE 48 (1348)

    - U.S. Charge D'affaires Joseph Pennington's New Year Message To The
    Armenian People
    - Finland Assumes OSCE Chair
    - Rep. Lantos to Retire Due to Cancer
    - Instances Of Abuse Continue
    - Facing Up To The Challenges Of 2008: A Strong Party Organization
    - Sins of Our Fathers
    - 2007 Review: Foreign Policy And The Pursuit Of Nagorno-Karabakh Settlement
    -------------

    - U.S. Charge D'affaires Joseph Pennington's New Year Message To The
    Armenian People

    On this first day of the New Year, I would like to thank the people of
    Armenia for their friendship and for the support they continue to give
    to the strong relationship between Armenia and the United States.
    Today is a day to celebrate the many things that bring us together as
    nations, and to reflect on the many achievements our two peoples have
    accomplished together since Armenia?s independence. It is also a day
    to look ahead to the hopes and challenges that the future holds.
    As we look ahead to 2008, I would like to assure you that US
    assistance to Armenia, which has now reached nearly 2 billion dollars,
    will continue. The United States is committed to supporting Armenia as
    it works to both establish a strong democracy, and build a vibrant
    economy, that benefit all of Armenia?s people. This year represents a
    particularly important opportunity for Armenia to demonstrate its
    commitment to democracy by holding a presidential election that meets
    international standards.
    The United States stands ready to support that important effort.
    I would like to express today my deep appreciation for the
    extraordinary warmth and hospitality the Armenian people continue to
    show me and my colleagues at the American embassy, and the wider
    American community in Armenia. It is an honor for us to live and work
    in Armenia, a country that has achieved so much since it gained its
    independence, and which has unlimited potential to accomplish even
    more in the future.
    I know Armenians have a saying about the New Year?s holiday: ?Just as
    one spends New Year?s, so, too, will they spend the following year.?
    So on behalf of the American people and the entire embassy, I wish all
    of the Armenian people a very special New Year?s holiday spent with
    close friends and family, and every success in the promising year ahead.
    Merry Christmas and a Happy
    New Year!
    Thank you.

    - Finland Assumes OSCE Chair

    HELSINKI -- Finland on Tuesday assumed the chair of the 56- nation
    Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Finnish
    Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva said as chair, Finland ?will focus,
    above all, on intensifying the organization?s operation and on the
    observance of existing commitments.? Finland succeeds Spain as chair.
    Issues in 2008 were likely to include the issue of Kosovo, conflicts
    involving Nagorno-Karabakh and breakaway regions in Transnistria in
    Moldova and the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, Kanerva
    said in a statement issued in Helsinki. The OSCE is also engaged in
    election monitoring. In 2009, Greece will take over from Finland as
    OSCE chair.


    - Rep. Lantos to Retire Due to Cancer

    WASHINGTON, DC -- Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat and chairman
    of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced on Wednesday that he
    will not seek reelection this year because he has cancer of the
    esophagus.
    Lantos, 79, is the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress and is
    known for his dedication to human rights issues. He is serving his
    14th term, after joining the House in 1981. According to his
    statement, ?routine medical tests? revealed the cancer. It did not
    provide additional details. Lantos was born in Budapest, Hungary. In
    1944, as a teenager, he was sent to a labor camp but eventually
    escaped. Three years later, he came to the United States on an
    academic scholarship.
    If Democrats retain control of the House after this fall?s elections,
    the next in line to assume control of the Foreign Affairs Committee
    would be Rep. Howard Berman, also a California Democrat.
    In October of 2007, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved H.
    Res. 106 by a vote of 27 to 21, which included an affirmative vote by
    Chairman Lantos.

    - Instances Of Abuse Continue

    By Vahan Ishkhanyan
    ArmeniaNow reporter

    Freedom of Speech

    September 1st broadcasting of Radio Liberty was suspended on Public
    Radio of Armenia as the Public Television and Radio Company refused to
    prolong the contract with the station. Before that in June the
    government had submitted a draft law on making amendments in the law
    on television and radio with the National Assembly, which prohibited
    the Public Television and Radio Company that rebroadcast the programs
    of Radio Liberty, financed by the US Congress.
    The draft law failed, but the Public Television and Radio Company
    refused to prolong the contract signed up to February.
    Broadcasting of Radio Liberty on Public Radio was once suspended in
    1994, then restored in 1998. Liberty was available all over the
    territory of the republic on Public Radio. Liberty now broadcasts on
    Yerevan FM and regional FM stations. Liberty is the only station not
    controlled by government authorities.

    ***
    Arman Babajanyan, 31, editor of Yerevan Zhamanak daily has been in
    prison for a year and a half. He was detained on June 26th 2006 and
    was sentenced to 3.5 years of imprisonment this year for avoiding
    military service by fake documents. Babajanyan has accepted his guilt.
    Babajanyan paid 1 million drams as prescribed by the order and
    submitted the check to the Appeal Court; however, it was not taken
    into notice and the Appeal Court only mitigated the verdict of the
    court of first instance changing it from 4 to 3.5 years. Yerevan
    Zhamanak daily takes a critical posture on authorities and many
    journalists and rights activists believe the true reason for
    Babajanyan?s imprisonment is the stand of the newspaper. ?When they
    arrested him we knew it was because of his activities. And now a
    number of circumstances clearly prove it,? says the chairman of the
    Helsinki Committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanyan.

    ***
    Tax bodies and the municipality of Gyumri have launched persecutions
    against the GALA Television Company of Gyumri after the channel
    broadcasted on October 14th the speech delivered by Levon
    Ter-Petrosyan on September 21st. The municipality of Gyumri has
    appealed to the court to uninstall the GALA broadcasting antenna from
    the old TV tower of Gyumri; and the tax service has appealed to the
    court to make it pay 25,212,800 drams ($83,000). The trials proceed
    simultaneously.
    Vahan Khachatryan, director of the TV Company says representatives of
    the National Security Service had a talk with him the next day after
    the broadcast encouraging him to avoid broadcasting such kind of
    materials otherwise it would be bad for the television company. A
    conversation of similar content took place between him and the
    chairman of the Commission for Television and Radio Grigor Amalyan on
    October 17th.
    Khachatryan says he has told them he will not succumb to pressure.
    After that, the tax bodies launched regular check-ups in ChAP Limited,
    the founder of the GALA Television, and the municipality has demanded
    to remove the antenna. Vahan Tumasyan, coordinator of the National
    Democratic Union office in Gyumri says GALA is the only television
    channel that gives air to all political forces.
    Seven organizations in Gyumri have created a headquarters for freedom
    of speech and the protection of the GALA (www.asparez.am).

    Tortures

    The preliminary investigation into the criminal case on the death of
    Levon Gulyan, 30, in the police on May 12th has been underway in the
    prosecutor general?s office of the republic for more than nine months.
    Gulyan was taken to the police as a witness of a murder in the
    neighborhood of the Pandok restaurant he ran.
    Two days earlier, May 10th and May 11th, Gulyan was taken to the
    Shengavit police department and, his relatives say, was beaten. The
    workers at his restaurant say they were also beaten by police.
    According to the police version, Gulyan died in an attempt to escape
    the police through the window on the second floor. The forensic
    examination of the Ministry of Healthcare concluded Gulyan died of
    falling from a 7 meter height, while upon the conclusion of the
    experts from Germany and Denmark the number of bruises found on the
    body could appear before the fall.
    The chairman of the Helsinki committee says beatings and tortures in
    the police are a constant matter, but society learns about them only
    when they end up in one?s death.

    Political prisoners

    Citizen of Lebanon and the coordinator of the non-governmental
    initiative Defense of Liberated Territories Zhirayr Sefilyan and
    Vardan Malkhasyan, member of the political council for the Fatherland
    and Honor Party were sentenced to 1.5 and 2 years of imprisonment
    respectively for making public calls on forceful change of the
    constitutional order.
    They have been in prison since December 10th 2006. Vardan Aronyan has
    been sentenced for two years of conditional imprisonment on the same
    case.

    ***
    Former minister of foreign affairs of Armenia Alexander Arzumanyan
    spent four months in prison charged with money laundering. He was
    arrested on May 6th and was kept in the isolator of the National
    Security Service.
    The means of his detention was replaced on September 6th and he was
    released, despite the case has not been closed. He is charged in
    receiving illegally earned $150,000 from Sashik Aghazaryan, a citizen
    of Russia.
    Arzumanyan has refused to give evidence grounding it with the
    necessity for the preliminary investigation to identify first whether
    the sum was earned illegally and whether he [Arzumanyan] could know it
    if that proves true. The right activists connect his imprisonment with
    his oppositional stand.
    Arzumanyan has been actively engaged in politics beginning last year,
    has created a movement of disobedience against the authorities of
    Armenia and now backs the former president of Armenia Levon
    Ter-Petrosyan.


    - Facing Up To The Challenges Of 2008:
    A Strong Party Organization

    By Toros Sarian

    On November 10th a detailed article written by Hratch Tchillingirian
    was published in Massis Weekly. This article underlined several
    fundamental issues important to the future political direction and
    development of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP).
    120 years have passed since the founding of the Party and naturally
    the experiences of this long period have to be closely evaluated. The
    Party has gone through different phases over this time and each period
    has brought with it totally unique challenges.
    As the party was founded in 1887 there was an overwhelming conviction
    that only a strong party organization based on a scientific and world
    view, would be in a position to end the national and social
    suppression of the Armenian people. The fact that the SDHP succeeded,
    within a few years, in attracting numerous supporters in the Ottoman
    Empire and was well prepared to begin the fight against the brutal and
    despotic Turkish-Ottoman regime, is evidence of the correctness of the
    founding members conviction.
    To be sure the Armenian Genocide can be viewed as the most important
    episode in the history of not only the Armenian people but also of the
    SDHP and other Armenian parties. Despite the enormous human loss and
    for the most part the loss of their historical homelands, the Armenian
    people were able to create an existence in a small part of Armenia.
    With great effort it was possible for the SDHP to create a basis for
    the rebirth of a political organization and under severe conditions
    party members and supporters were able to ensure the continuation of
    the party organization.
    When the SDHP proudly looks back on its 120 year history, it does so
    always with the remembrance for the many party members and supporters
    who with great sacrifice kept the party alive. The history of the
    party is therefore also a history of the party members and supporters,
    the well-known and also the countless unknown. At the end of his
    article Hratch Tchillingirian wrote: "There is much to be learned from
    the past and there is much to think and do in the present."
    Historical analysis of political struggles and movements have shown us
    that a Party which has not succeeded in surmounting these
    organizational challenges cannot develop or progress. The practical
    and historical experience of all parties and movements, not just of
    the Armenian parties, has to be studied and evaluated. The lessons of
    the past must be adopted by the political leadership. In practice a
    party will only be successful when the organization is in a position
    to implement those policies chosen as party political goals.
    Therefore, not only an array of political and ideology questions need
    to be discussed and clarified, but also simultaneously a strong party
    organization structure has to be worked upon and created.
    Armenians in the diaspora and also in the Republic of Armenia will
    give their support to the SDHP if they see that the party is offering
    the correct solutions for the national, social and economic problems.
    But it is important that the people realize that they have a party
    which is able to campaign for the implementation of policies meeting
    their needs. An organizationally weak Party will not be able to
    effectively attract the people even if it offers appropriate political
    solutions. The development of existing structures is one of the major
    tasks and requires the same dedication and effort of its members as
    has been given over the past 120 years. Certainly, it is not easy to
    motivate people. And as Hratch Tchillingirian rightly pointed out in
    his article, the Party must not be allowed to be seen by the people as
    "a historic national institution as precious museum like antiquities."
    The success of future party politics is very much dependent upon
    whether or not at least a few of the questions thrown up by Hratch
    Tchillingirian can be addressed by the Party. The Armenian people
    living in the Republic of Armenia and in the diaspora need a
    progressive and modern party which is able to fulfil the demands for
    democracy and social justice. It could become a real political
    alternative to the other parties and it is time for the SDHP to work
    with all its strength to create a strong party organization; a Party
    organization which participates, within the diaspora and in Armenia
    itself, in the moulding of the future of the Armenian people and
    Armenia. The SDHP will only be able to win support when they follow an
    up to date political platform and at the same time have a functional
    Party Leadership and Party Organization. The Party has a long history
    and has overcome difficult situations. Nevertheless, in the future
    more effort and sacrifice will be demanded to meet the new challenges
    of the 21st Century.

    Toros Sarian is a historian and
    community activist in
    Hamburg, Germany



    - Sins of Our Fathers
    The More Turkey Denies The 1915 Genocide Of Armenians,
    The Less The World Believes It

    By Mahvish Zehra

    Watching movies can be an educational experience. I have come across
    many interesting facts about history, different places, and life in
    general from watching movies. And wittingly or otherwise, they have
    left lasting impressions. Take the Jewish Holocaust for example; I
    don?t think any person exposed to the media is ignorant of it. Every
    person reading this will have knowledge about the Holocaust, and be
    naturally against all the factors that brought it about.
    For me, movies like ?Life is Beautiful? with the adorable Roberto
    Benigni, and the ways he tries to conceal from his young son the
    horrors of the concentration camp they are in, form a part of my
    impressions of the Holocaust. The destitution of the Jewish people
    captured by Adrien Brody in ?The Pianist?, and the ruthless and coldly
    calculated extermination of the Jews shown in many other movies, form
    the major body of Holocaust knowledge that people are exposed to.
    While the Jewish people rightly deserve the sympathy of the whole
    world, why may I ask, the same sympathy is not afforded to other
    peoples similarly persecuted?
    About two years ago, I stumbled upon a very interesting movie that I
    have not been able to forget. It was about another holocaust, one that
    happened around 1915, of a people I had not heard much about before:
    the Armenians.
    The film is titled ?Ararat?, after Mount Ararat where biblically,
    Noah?s ark came to rest after the flood. The Armenians call it ?Our
    Ararat? and see it as a symbol of their history and resistance. It is
    located in eastern Turkey and since 1920, some claim, it has been
    officially closed to the Armenians across the border from visiting it.
    Armenians trace their history back to at least 2000 BC. They are one
    of the oldest Christian nations in the world, and the first nation to
    have adopted Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD. Only about
    one-fifth of Armenians live in present day Armenia, the rest scattered
    about the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. Members of rock band,
    System of a Down, and singer Cher, are some famous Armenians.
    Preceding the genocide of 1915, the Turks and Armenians lived in
    relative peace with each other. No doubt, the Armenians lived as
    second-class citizens in the Ottoman lands due to their Christian
    status. As the Ottoman Empire?s power was deteriorating, revolutionary
    and nationalistic sentiments grew among its peoples. The Armenians, as
    a major Christian majority, desired independence as other Christian
    nations had received. They also clearly remembered the widespread
    killings they had been subjected to in the 1890?s and in 1909, when
    they had demanded more rights and security from the Ottoman government.
    The Turks viewed the Armenians as getting in the way of their
    nationalistic aspirations, and under the pretext of ?disloyalty?,
    planned out the genocide of 1915. Ararat shows very graphically the
    treatment meted out to the Armenians at the hands of the Turks, which
    resulted in the mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians. The Director,
    well respected Canadian, Atom Egoyan, seems less concerned about
    winning awards or being a success at the Box Office then about making
    a lasting impression on his viewers. Scenes showing an Armenian woman
    being raped by a Turk while her toddler daughter clings to her ankle,
    or adolescent girls being burned alive, seem to scream out against the
    silence around the genocide. A silence being borne by Armenian
    descendants such as Egoyan, for more than 90 years.
    Walking away from the film, one is not left untouched. It reminds one
    of the Jewish Holocaust in many ways. The cold and calculated
    extermination of the Armenians, and the brutal methods that were used
    in the process, bring to mind the Jewish concentration camps and gas
    chambers. Researchers have unearthed that Armenians were killed with
    hammers and axes to save ammunition. There were mass drownings and
    live burnings.
    Internationally renowned expert on the Armenian genocide, Professor
    Vahakn Dadrian, has produced a document written by General Mehmet
    Vehip Pasha, commander of the Turkish Third Army, who visited an
    Armenian village and found all the houses packed with burned human
    skeletons. General Pasha wrote in the document, ?in all the history of
    Islam, it is not possible to find any parallel to such savagery.? It
    is not the point, of remembering and rehashing past events, to make a
    show and drama out of misery. Or to carry out performing rituals of
    our fathers we fail to understand anymore; it is to learn lessons. To
    make a vow to ourselves not to let anything remotely close to that
    event happen again. If we, people of today, have any reason at all to
    claim to be better than those of yesterday, it is because we have
    before us their mistakes and faults to learn from.
    They say the similarities of the Armenian genocide with the Jewish
    Holocaust are not coincidental. There were many Germans present in the
    Ottoman lands who were witness to the mass killings and deportations,
    and thus carried back accounts to the rest of the world. Hitler thus
    had full knowledge of the genocide, and used it to learn from while
    planning out his own. For example, while ordering the mass
    extermination of the Polish, before the invasion of Poland, he is
    known to have said: ?Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation
    of the Armenians??
    The Turkish government denies any genocide took place, and claims that
    the Armenian killings took place during a time of political turmoil
    and fighting during World War One. To call the mass killings
    ?genocide? or even to speak of them in Turkey could leave you facing
    charges, as Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk discovered. In 2005, during an
    interview with a Swiss newspaper, Pamuk said: ?A million Armenians and
    30,000 Kurds were killed in this country and I?m the only one who
    dares to talk about it?. These remarks left him facing 3 years in
    prison for ?public denigration of Turkish identity?.
    Recently, Turkey finds itself embroiled in the Armenian genocide
    issue, as the U.S House of Committee approved a resolution, calling
    the 1915 Armenian massacres genocide. Turkey viewed the resolution as
    an insult and threatened the U.S that ?great harm? would be done to
    their bilateral ties. Turkey is a very important U.S ally in the Iraq
    War, providing key logistical support to U.S troops in Iraq. Support
    for the resolution has since faltered as the U.S is more concerned
    about keeping good relations with Turkey, than taking the risk of
    passing a resolution that only recognizes the genocide, and nothing
    more.
    The point of accepting responsibility for past sins, I repeat, is not
    to make a show out of misery. It is to learn lessons and better
    ourselves, so that those mistakes may never be repeated: of causing
    such misery, or letting it happen while we stand idly by. As Turkey
    plans an offensive into Northern Iraq against Kurds, who have been
    struggling for independence for years, it may seem poised to repeat
    the sins it denies so vehemently. The worst kind of sin is the one we
    refuse to acknowledge as a sin at all.


    - Mahvish Zehra is a student
    with the University of London,
    residing in Pakistan

    2007 Review:
    Foreign Policy And The Pursuit Of Nagorno-Karabakh Settlement

    By Aris Ghazinyan
    ArmeniaNow reporter

    In the sphere of foreign policy affairs and prospects for the
    settlement of the Karabakh problem, 2007 was a chronicle of
    alternating events, some of which had not been forecast at all. In
    particular, the new year began on January 19 when editor-in-chief of
    the Istanbul-based Turkish-Armenian language newspaper ?Agos? Hrant
    Dink was shot dead in the center of Istanbul by a Turkish nationalist.
    This unforeseen event immediately overshadowed the expected start of
    the ?foreign policy? year, i.e. the winter session of the
    Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that had on its
    agenda Armenia?s fulfillment of its commitments to the Council of
    Europe.
    A corresponding PACE resolution was adopted at the plenary session on
    January 23. The document stated progress achieved by Armenia in
    fulfilling its obligations. Armenian Parliament Speaker Tigran
    Torosyan evaluated that document as an ?unprecedented positive
    resolution ever passed by the PACE on Armenia?s fulfillment of its
    obligations to the Council of Europe.? Nevertheless, despite even the
    seriousness of the meeting in Strasbourg, it was Hrant Dink?s murder
    that marked the start of the year and outlined one of its major
    characteristics ? aggravating tensions in Armenian-Turkish relations.
    The start of the year was marked by another surge of optimistic moods
    among influential Armenian organizations regarding the possible
    adoption of a resolution on the Armenian genocide by the U.S.
    Congress. The optimism had first of all been conditioned by the
    victory of Democrats in the latest congressional elections as well as
    the statement of the newly elected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that a
    draft resolution would be taken to the House floor until April 24,
    2007. Resolution 106 was submitted to the House for consideration on
    January 30. The whole year has been impregnated for Armenians around
    the world and Armenia?s foreign policy department with expectations
    for the resolution to be passed.
    The foreign policy aspect of 2007 from the very beginning implied two
    phases of boost, and they were separated from each other by the period
    of holding parliamentary elections in Armenia. However, the first
    phase ended earlier than expected in connection with a new unforeseen
    circumstance ? a sudden death of Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan on
    March 24.
    During the first two months of 2007, Armenia?s president met with the
    heads of Russia and France ? two of the three states that co-chair the
    OSCE Minsk Group on the settlement of the Karabakh problem. Robert
    Kocharyan met with Vladimir Putin in the Russian resort town of Sochi
    on January 24, and with outgoing Jacques Chirac in Paris on February
    19. It is demonstrative that in-between these two meetings the region
    of the Karabakh standoff was visited by the OSCE Minsk Group
    mediators. In particular, on January 27, cochairmen Yuri Merzlyakov
    (Russia), Mathew Bryza (USA) and Bernard Fassier (France) visited
    Stepanakert and met with Nagorno-Karabakh Republic President Arkady
    Ghukasyan. The news was the statement by the Russian diplomat that
    ?there is a common opinion?, but at the same time Merzlyakov refused
    to reveal details citing confidentiality of the talks.
    Not much information was reported about the meeting of the presidents
    of Russia and Armenia. Apparently, the sides discussed not only the
    Karabakh problem, but also Russia?s stronger economic presence in
    Armenia and prospects of forming a vertical geopolitical axis
    Moscow-Yerevan-Tehran. Remarkably, the supply of Iranian gas to
    Armenia started on March 19. The ceremony of opening the
    trans-boundary section of the gas pipeline was attended by the
    presidents of Armenia and Iran, Robert Kocharyan and Mahmoud
    Ahmadinejad. In order to increase the volumes of import of Iranian gas
    ArmRosgazprom launched the construction of a 197-kilometer gas
    pipeline? Kajaran-Ararat.
    On the whole, 2007 was marked by the increased Russian capital on the
    Armenian market. In particular, Russia?s number one wireless operator
    Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), purchased 80 percent of shares of
    International Cell Holding which is a 100 percent owner of the
    K-Telecom (brand name VivaCell) and also signed an option agreement
    for the purchase of the remaining 20 percent. In the ending year
    Armenia also made a decision to shut down the Metsamor Nuclear Power
    Plant whose term of operation ends in 2016 according to technical
    requirements. But by signing the New European Neighborhood Policy
    Action Plan, Armenia undertook to close the station within the
    shortest possible term. Russian Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) Head,
    former Prime Minister Sergey Kiriyenko stated his agency?s readiness
    to render assistance to the Armenian side not only in building a new
    block, but also in taking a financial part in the project. The
    strengthening Russian presence in Armenia indeed became one of the
    characteristics of the ending year.
    But the most important foreign policy event of the year for Armenia
    was the meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers? Council in Madrid, Spain.
    On November 29, the countries mediating a Karabakh settelement
    (Russia, the United States, France) gave the foreign ministers of
    Armenia and Azerbaijan so-called ?fair and balanced basic principles
    of a peaceful settlement of the conflict?. It is not concretely known
    what the provisions imply, but the following statement of US
    Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns in this connection is
    demonstrative: ?Any agreements that will be reached on Kosovo cannot
    be applied to other conflicts. The situation in Kosovo is specific and
    I do not think that any parallels can be drawn between the situation
    in Nagorno-Karabakh and a possible solution in Kosovo.?
    It is demonstrative that the parties to the conflict were urged to
    complete the current stage of negotiations by the approval of the
    basic principles and immediately pass on to a new phase ? development
    of a draft comprehensive peace treaty. Besides, they were also asked
    to prepare their populations to peace and stop issuing any statements
    admitting the option of war as a means of solving the conflict. In
    this connection, the OSCE Foreign Ministers? Council issued a
    statement on Nagorno-Karabakh. ?It is with pleasure that we point out
    that Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to continue the current
    negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the
    coming electoral year. We demonstrate support for the OSCE Minsk Group
    Co-Chairs? effort to forge together with the party basic principles of
    a peaceful settlement of the conflict. We strongly urge both parties
    to overcome the last remaining differences that they have thereby
    approving the general concept of settlement and get down to the
    development of a comprehensive peace agreement on that basis.?
    In this aspect, it should be pointed out that the upcoming year
    promises not only internal political activity connected with the
    presidential election slated for February but also foreign policy
    activity to a much greater extent. As it was unequivocally stated at
    the meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers? Council, the international
    diplomatic community intends to solve the Karabakh problem in the
    visible future.


    --
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