ARMENIAN MINISTER DESCRIBES GUAM STATEMENT ON KARABAKH MISGUIDED
Public Television, Armenia
Dec 6 2006
[Presenter] Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan, who is attending
the summit of the Council of the OSCE foreign ministers in Brussels,
described a statement by the GUAM [regional alliance of Georgia,
Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova] about a referendum scheduled to take
place in Nagornyy Karabakh [on 10 December] misguided, the minister
told "Aylur" news bulletin.
The other member countries of the GUAM have simply yielded to
Azerbaijan’s desire and hurriedly announced that the referendum to
be held in Karabakh will obstruct the negotiations process, Oskanyan
said. The minister believes that on the contrary, the democratic
measures under way in Nagornyy Karabakh are speeding up a solution
to the problem.
[Oskanyan] Azerbaijan mainly creates obstacles to the negotiations
process but not Nagornyy Karabakh or Armenia. I believe that such
statements hinder the continuation of the process. Azerbaijan’s
bellicose statements and refusal to Karabakh’s involvement in
negotiating process as well as Azerbaijan’s attempts to prevent the
[OSCE] Minsk Group from continuing the negotiating process cause doubts
in Nagornyy Karabakh about Azerbaijan’s promise. The main obstacles
to the process are those, but not the constitutional referendum to
be held in Nagornyy Karabakh.
From: Baghdasarian