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Polish Envoy Backs Karabakh Role In Minsk Group Peace Talks

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  • Polish Envoy Backs Karabakh Role In Minsk Group Peace Talks

    POLISH ENVOY BACKS KARABAKH ROLE IN MINSK GROUP PEACE TALKS

    Asbarez
    Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
    YEREVAN

    (RFE/RL)-Representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh should be a party to
    Armenian-Azerbaijani peace negotiations, Poland's ambassador to
    Armenia indicated on Monday.

    Zdzislaw Raczynski also insisted that a recent resolution by the
    European Parliament, criticized by Armenia, does not mean that the
    European Union is seeking direct involvement in the negotiating
    process that has long been mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.

    "No organization except the OSCE, not even the EU and the UN, is
    involved in Karabakh negotiations," Raczynski told a news conference.

    The president of the EU's executive European Commission, Jose Manuel
    Barroso, likewise said after talks with Armenia's visiting President
    Serzh Sarkisian last week that the bloc hopes to "see some progress
    soon through the ongoing negotiations of the OSCE Minsk Group."

    "I have informed President Sarkisian that the EU is ready to step
    up its efforts in support of the resolution of the conflict notably
    through the EU-funded program of confidence building measures such
    as people-to-people contacts," Barroso told journalists in Brussels.

    In a non-binding resolution on the South Caucasus adopted on May
    20, the European Parliament demanded Armenia's withdrawal from the
    liberated territories of Nagorno-Karabakh. The resolution did not
    specify whether that should be done immediately and unconditionally
    or after the signing of a comprehensive Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement.

    Armenia's government and leading political forces rejected this
    demand, saying that it contradicts the Minsk Group's existing plan to
    resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh endorsed by the EU. The so-called Madrid
    Document calls for the liberation of virtually all Armenian-controlled
    territories around Karabakh in return for a future referendum on
    self-determination within the disputed territory itself.

    Raczynski declined to comment on official Yerevan's claims that the
    resolution clause is at odds with EU governments' position on the
    Karabakh conflict resolution. "Formulations in that resolution are
    very general and it is the two, or rather three, parties that should
    negotiate over details," he said.

    The envoy clarified that those parties are Armenia, Azerbaijan and
    Karabakh. He also said Poland has a "neutral" stance on the conflict
    and shares the Minsk Group mediators' view that a Karabakh settlement
    should be based on the principles of both territorial integrity and
    peoples' self-determination.

    Despite regular visits to Stepanakert by the group's American, French
    and Russian co-chairs, Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian leadership
    has not been directly involved in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks for
    over a decade. Azerbaijan refuses any direct contacts with the Karabakh
    Armenians, saying that the disputed territory is controlled by Armenia.

    The mediators have repeatedly assured the authorities in Yerevan and
    Stepanakert that the Karabakh Armenians will play a major role at a
    later stage in the peace process.




    From: A. Papazian
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