ACCORDING TO STEPAN SAFARIAN, OCTOBER 27 CASES PREVENTED SIGNING OF TREATY ON HANDING OVER MEGHRI
Noyan Tapan
Feb 14, 2008
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Expert Stepan Safarian, a member
of the Zharangutiun (Heritage) faction of the RA National Assembly,
sees a direct connection between the one-time variant on handing
over Meghri to the Azerbaijani side during the negotiation process
concerning the Nagorno Karabakh problem and the October 27, 1999
terrorism. As he declared at the press conference held on February
13, Vardan Oskanian, the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs, in fact,
confessed in the interview given to the Shant TV Company on the eve,
that there have really been conversations about handing over Meghri
before 2000. In his words, the current authorities "had put the country
in such a venture that the October 27 became the prevention of that
venture." He reminded of the words of one of the Chairmen of the OSCE
MInsk Group that "but for the October 27 cases, the agreement on the
Nagorno Karabakh problem would be signed." That agreement, according
to Stepan Safarian, included the variant of handing over Meghri.
"It is inaddmissible to embark on adventures and then to prevent them
by all means," the representative of the Zharangutiun stated.