Armenian paper questions Azeri leader’s new Karabakh proposals
Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
30 Jun 05
Text of unattributed report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak on
30 June headlined “Secrets of the negotiations”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said yesterday that Azerbaijan is
ready to provide security guarantees and privileged rights to the
Armenian community of Nagornyy Karabakh. “I am sure that the problem
will be settled in this context,” he said.
Nevertheless, if everything is clear with regard to security, then
what does privileged rights mean? In all probability, he means that
the people of Nagornyy Karabakh will be given an opportunity to hold a
referendum in the future and determine the status of the Nagornyy
Karabakh Republic [NKR]. At this stage of the negotiations, Armenia
and Azerbaijan are discussing this problem as well.
According to our information, holding discussions on these issues is
acceptable to Armenia. At first sight, this option seems to be very
favourable for Armenia, but in reality everything will be clear after
we find out details that might be numerous.
And if this option is acceptable to Armenia after these details are
clarified, we shall clearly support the stage-by-stage, not the
package settlement, because now that a peace agreement is being
prepared, the status of Nagornyy Karabakh, which was very important to
the [Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan administration until
recently, will not be finally determined.
Nevertheless, we should admit that it is unlikely that the
negotiations on this issue will provide Armenia with any favourable
settlement. This settlement will have nothing in common with the
principle which Kocharyan used to come to power and which is quite
similar to [ex-President Levon] Ter-Petrosyan’s option for settling
the conflict.
And if Robert Kocharyan manages to come to a logical conclusion today,
the Armenian public will be presented with an alternative: either to
remind Kocharyan of how he came to power or to allow him to go for a
Karabakh settlement based on mutual compromises. The answer to this
question will depend on mutual compromises suggested by Kocharyan.