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Armenian minister says progress made in Karabakh talks

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  • Armenian minister says progress made in Karabakh talks

    Armenian minister says progress made in Karabakh talks

    Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
    19 May 05

    Progress has been achieved on the Nagornyy Karabakh status at the
    latest meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Poland,
    Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has said. In an interview
    with Armenian Public TV, Oskanyan said that new opportunities had
    been opened up for discussing other elements of a package settlement.
    The Armenian minister also criticized Turkey for failure to organize
    a meeting between the two countries' leaders in Warsaw. This showed
    that there is no progress in Armenian-Turkish relations, Oskanyan
    said. The following is the text of the interview on Armenian Public
    TV on 19 May; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

    [Presenter] We have invited Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
    to our studio today to receive his comments on the recent Warsaw
    developments [meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents on
    the fringes of the Council of Europe summit on 15 May] which were in
    everybody's focus of attention.

    Good evening, Mr Minister. First of all, I would like to ask you
    about Kirk Kirkoryan's [well-known US philanthropists of Armenian
    origin, founder of the Lincy Foundation] visit to Armenia. What is
    the aim of his visit? Are official meetings expected and will the
    future programmes and activity of the Lincy Foundation in Armenia
    be discussed?

    [Vardan Oskanyan, captioned] This is Kirkoryan's private visit. He
    has arrived in Yerevan from the Cannes Film Festival in France, he
    decided to visit his motherland and spend several days here. He has
    come with a relative. He is also an American Armenian, John Mason. He
    is in Armenia for the first time.

    Kirkoryan held unofficial meetings with Armenian President Robert
    Kocharyan and me.

    Progress achieved at Warsaw talks

    [Presenter] Mr Minister, commenting on the latest [Armenian President
    Robert] Kocharyan - [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev meeting
    in Warsaw, you said that a little step was made forward during that
    meeting and some progress was achieved on the Karabakh status. Does
    this mean that the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the greater
    Artsakh [Karabakh] lands was not discussed at the negotiating table?

    [Vardan Oskanyan] Let us not speculate. When I said that the progress
    achieved during the Warsaw meeting of the presidents was in line
    with the principles of the Armenian side, I just intended to answer
    to the Azerbaijani leadership, especially their foreign minister's
    [Elmar Mammadyarov] recent statement that the Armenian side is ready
    to return seven districts. You know that one of our main conditions
    is that Nagornyy Karabakh should not be an enclave and this cannot be
    a subject of discussion. There can be only one decision - this is the
    self-determination right of the Nagornyy Karabakh population. While
    having this status, Nagornyy Karabakh should also have a common border
    with the Republic of Armenia. Therefore, I stressed that the progress
    we talked about referred to the return of the districts.

    I would like to repeat that the meeting was good, positive progress
    was achieved on some issues. I do not want to speak about details
    because there can be serious disagreements. You see, Mammadyarov's
    one statement has caused such disagreement. In this connection, I
    want to say that, in order not to cast doubt upon that, my spokesman
    [Gamlet Gasparyan] said that it does not correspond to reality.
    Nevertheless, one of the obstacles in the key issues, albeit small,
    has been removed and we have made positive progress.

    Recently I said that we, the foreign ministers, have already exhausted
    our mandate. We have done everything that was possible to do within
    the Prague process over the last two years. There was really a need
    for the two presidents' meeting. That is why I refused to meet my
    Azerbaijani counterpart. I can say that there was a need for the
    presidents' meeting because new opportunities were opened up for us
    after the presidents' meeting. Today, we have a lot to discuss at
    the talks and they will continue in the near future.

    Karabakh status priority issue in talks

    [Presenter] Mr Oskanyan, the Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
    Group, Yuriy Merzlyakov, commenting on Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
    Elmar Mammadyarov's statement, also said that Armenia was ready to
    withdraw troops from seven districts. What does it mean Armenia is
    ready? This principle has not been questioned by the Armenian side
    - Armenian troops will withdraw from the districts around Nagornyy
    Karabakh. But there is yet no final agreement on how and when this
    will be done, Merzlyakov said, adding that the issue of withdrawal
    was not a matter of tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Does this mean
    that the conditions of withdrawal will be discussed in the near future?

    [Vardan Oskanyan] You know, I think that sooner or later we will
    have to return to all the elements of the package option. The package
    option for the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict consists
    of four elements. This is not a secret. I can mention them. These are
    the status of Nagornyy Karabakh, the issue of territories, refugees
    and security problems. We have held discussions and agreement has
    been reached on some of these elements and serious disagreements
    remained concerning others. We managed to resolve the disagreement
    regarding one of the elements, but this does not mean that these
    issues will not be discussed further. The most important issue for
    us is the status of Nagornyy Karabakh and without clarifying it,
    it is senseless to discuss the others. There is positive progress
    concerning the status issue, which opens up opportunities for the
    discussion of other elements of the negotiating process.

    Turkish premier made mistake by failing to meet Armenian leader

    [Presenter] Mr Oskanyan, everybody was looking forward to a Kocharyan
    - [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan meeting before the
    summit. But it did not take place. The Turkish media reported every
    day, quoting their government sources, that this meeting would take
    place. The Turkish leadership took steps to organize this meeting
    before the Council of Europe summit but they did not succeed.

    [Vardan Oskanyan] I was surprised by what happened concerning the
    Turkish-Armenian issue. I am surprised by the mistake of Turkish
    diplomacy which has experience and history. Their mistake is based
    on wrong calculations and assessment of the situation.

    About 25-30 journalists arrived in Warsaw from Turkey, they came to
    cover not the European summit but the Kocharyan-Erdogan meeting. All
    those journalists wanted to ask us whether this meeting would take
    place. I talked to them, and they said that they had come to cover the
    meeting and they did not doubt that this meeting would take place. The
    Turks probably expected us to propose a meeting. But this did not
    happen. But after numerous statements by the Turkish side about a
    possible meeting, it would have been naive to expect the Armenian side
    to come up with the initiative, taking into account that the Turkish
    side needed this more in the context of its European integration and
    starting a dialogue with Armenia.

    If the Turkish side had asked for or demanded a meeting with Robert
    Kocharyan, I am sure that the president would have accepted the
    proposal. He would have had discussions with Erdogan. After an
    exchange of letters between the two leaders, Turkish diplomacy made
    a mistake, undermining progress in Armenian-Turkish relations. I must
    say that because of the Turks we made a step back in Armenian-Turkish
    relations. Erdogan's speech on the second day [of the summit] left
    a bad impression and showed that generally, there is no progress in
    Armenian-Turkish relations. This was the Turks' second mistake.

    In the context of European integration, the absence of relations
    between Armenia and Turkey backfires on this country. Turkey is
    scheduled to hold talks with the European Union by the end of this
    year. In this context, it has been assigned serious tasks - to
    recognize the Armenian genocide and open the borders. Now Turkish
    diplomatic structures have to seek ways to restore the favourable
    atmosphere in relations with Armenia that was created after the
    exchange of letters between Kocharyan and Erdogan.

    [Presenter] Thank you, Mr Minister.
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