Armenian public body “outraged” by US official statement on Karabakh

Arminfo
18 Jan 05

YEREVAN

It stands to reason that the recent statement by US Assistant State
Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Elizabeth Jones, which
contained provocative assessments of the Karabakh problem, cannot but
cause outrage, said a statement of the Artsakh [Karabakh] Patriotic
Union public organization made public at today’s news conference by
its leader and member of the [Armenian] National Assembly, Gamlet
Arutyunyan.

One can see that by making this statement, Elizabeth Jones has decided
to bring to nought many years of efforts made by experienced
co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group from the USA, Russia and France,
which has more than once said that the Karabakh problem is unique and
different from any other conflict in the post-Soviet area, the
statement said. The authors of the statement stressed that it was
wrong to draw parallels between the Karabakh problem and other
conflicts in the post-Soviet area, let alone to say that separatist
regimes ruled there.

“Nagornyy Karabakh is an established state with the same level of
democratization as in other former Soviet countries,” the statement
said. The authors of the statement noted that Nagornyy Karabakh gained
its independence as a result of a liberation war against “colonisers”
just like the USA. Statements of this kind are provocative, the
statement said. The authors intend to turn to the US embassy in
Armenia to get explanations.

To recap, speaking about the forthcoming meeting between the
presidents of the USA and Russia, Elizabeth Jones said that [US
President] George Bush was concerned that Russia did not exert
appropriate pressure to resolve the Dniester, South Ossetia, Abkhaz
and Nagornyy Karabakh conflicts. She said, in particular: “It is in
Russia’s interests that Dniester, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagornyy
Karabakh are stable and incorrupt and that the criminal separatist
regimes ruling there are brought down.”