RA PRESIDENT CONSIDERS THAT NAGORNO KARABAKH PROBLEM’S SETTLEMENT IS IMPOSSIBLE BEFORE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
Noyan Tapan
Oct 31, 2007
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Robert Kocharian
considers that the Nagorno Karabakh problem cannot be settled before
the presidential elections. He said this during his October 31
interview to journalists. "I do not share the optimism the mediators
are expressing today," he said, probably meaning the OSCE Minsk
Group Co-chairs’ statements made lately. R. Kocharian confessed that
there is certain progress in the negotiations process, but "I am
not so optimistic to suppose that we can achieve concrete results
before the presidential elections." He stated that the settlement
process is going on, there are positive and negative sides in it:
"When we look at the draft being discussed, it seems to us that we
have passed some way," the President said but added that on the other
hand, the bellicose statements and approaches of the Azeri leadership
make the impression that "these two processes just have nothing in
common with each other, therefore the grounds for optimism are not
big today, there are threats, and we should also take these threats
into consideration in our policy."