Kiro Manoyan: Final Deal On Karabakh Possible Within Several Years

KIRO MANOYAN: FINAL DEAL ON KARABAKH POSSIBLE WITHIN SEVERAL YEARS

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.12.2008 16:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ If adopted, the basic principles of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict resolution may be promulgated in Armenia and NKR,
ARF Bureau’s Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office Director said.

"ARF Dashnaktsutyun’s stand on the issue is as follows: the conflict
should be resolved via talks, a peaceful agreement should be signed,
any mutual concessions should be balanced and equal, NKR should
participate in talks as a party to conflict, NKR’s future status
should be determined, Karabakh territories occupied by Azerbaijan
should be returned, the problem of refugees should be resolved,"
Kiro Manoyan told a news conference today.

The Co-chairs are not in a hurry to resolve the conflict, according to
him. "The declaration signed by Foreign Minister of the OSCE member
countries clearly states that an agreement on basic principles will
be concluded within several months. So, No considerable changes are
expected in the Karabakh process unless the final agreement is sealed,"
he said.

Foreign Ministers of France, Russia, and the United States – the
Co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group – issued December 3 a
joint declaration of the on Nagorno Karabakh conflict, which says,

"We, the Foreign Ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chair countries
– France, Russia, and the United States – call on the parties to the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict to build on the positive momentum established
during the meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in
Moscow on November 2, 2008. The Moscow Declaration signed that same
day opened a new and promising phase in our shared endeavor to expand
peace in the South Caucasus. In that declaration, the Presidents
reaffirm their commitment to advancing a peaceful settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the framework of the Basic Principles
developed by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs in collaboration with the
leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis of their proposals
advanced last year in Madrid.

We call on the parties to work with the Co-Chairs to finalize the Basic
Principles in coming months, and then begin drafting a comprehensive
peace settlement as outlined by those agreed principles. In keeping
with the Moscow Declaration, we call on the parties to work with
the Co-Chairs to develop confidence-building measures, beginning
with pulling back snipers from the Line of Contact to save lives of
innocent civilians and soldiers as our mediators already proposed to
the sides at the highest level during the last visit mid November. It
is urgent for the parties to work with each other, the Co-Chairs,
and the Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office to stabilize
the ceasefire through this and other measures. We reiterate our firm
view that there is no military solution to the conflict and call on
the parties to recommit to a peaceful resolution."