FM: Armenia, Azerbaijan reach “unprecedented” rapprochement on NK

Mediamax News Agency, Russia
Oct 6 2005
Armenia, Azerbaijan reach “unprecedented” rapprochement on Karabakh –
minister
Yerevan, 6 October: Armenia and Azerbaijan have reached an
“unprecedented” rapprochement of the positions on principled issues
of the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan said in Yerevan today. He said this at a
meeting with journalists after addressing the seminar entitled
“Security in the South Caucasus” organized by the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly and the Armenian National Assembly.
Oskanyan said that the future status of Nagornyy Karabakh, problems
of the territories [adjacent to Nagornyy Karabakh] and guarantees of
security were among the “principled issues”, regarding which the
sides had managed to get their positions closer.
The minister pointed out that “there is no a new completed
[settlement] package on the table [of negotiations], but there are
specific ideas”.
“After all, after beginning to debate all these elements in detail,
one could expect a written document,” Oskanyan said. He advised to
wait for the end of the November parliamentary election in
Azerbaijan, “after which the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group will
boost the negotiations”.
Commenting on the statement of his Azerbaijani counterpart that
Yerevan and Baku have reached an agreement on mine clearing, the
Armenian foreign minister said that official agreements have not been
reached yet.
The Armenian foreign minister also said that only the OSCE Minsk
Group had an “exclusive mandate” for the settlement of the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict, but “the discussion of this problem within the
framework of other organizations is acceptable and may be useful”.
At the same time, Oskanyan stressed that the discussion of the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict in various organizations and resolutions
adopted as a result of them “cannot replace the negotiations”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress