BAKU: Oskanyan distorts Karabakh- related facts

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Oct 15 2004

VARDAN OSKANYAN DISTORTS NAGORNY KARABAKH – RELATED FACTS
[October 14, 2004, 20:23:54]

Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan
released a statement on October 14 to comment on the interview
concerning Nagorno-Karabakh settlement given by Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan in his usual manner to the county’s Public
Television.

The statement in particular says it was the Armenian Minister’s one
more attempt to mystify the Key West talks by citing to a certain
” the only way” allegedly agreed by both sides, and implying that
Karabakh will not be a part of Azerbaijan.

“The Azerbaijani side stated more than once, and today we once again
suggest Mt. Oskayan to find better application of his persistence and
stop playing Key West games; we hereby reaffirm that no agreements
were reached on the issues discussed in Key West, the statement says.

It is Armenia that demonstrates its “unique abilities” to violate
scot-free the agreements reached, the statement says, recalling the
dismissal of former Armenian President Ter-Petrosyan who had then
accepted the OSCE Co-chairs’ plan of step-by-step settlement of
the conflict, which implied in the first stage a withdrawal of the
Armenian armed forces form the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
“The Azerbaijani side also remember other phase of the peace process
when President Kocharyan okayed in principle the transfer of a part
of Armenia’s territory to Azerbaijan that resulted in fusillade in
the Armenian parliament,” the statement says.

It also stresses that the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh cannot a
subject of compromise, it is an integral part of the Azerbaijan
Republic, and that compromises are possible only in relation to the
status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan does not put forward any innovations; there is a rich
and useful European experience of self-government. A different
approach provokes dangerous tendencies, and the multinational South
Caucasus region is not the only one that can face their unpredictable
consequences, the statement concludes.