168 Zham, Armenia
June 14 2011
Armenian opposition official cautious about Kazan meeting on Karabakh
[translated from Armenian]
An Armenian opposition official has said that there are risks involved
for Armenia in the signing of a document on Nagornyy Karabakh
settlement at the 25 June tripartite meeting of the Armenian,
Azerbaijani and Russian presidents in Kazan.
The head of the opposition Heritage faction, Stepan Safaryan, told the
Armenian pro-opposition 168 Zham newspaper that Yerevan should make
sure that the document does not refer to giving preliminary consent to
the Madrid principles of settlement.
The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has rarely been so optimistic
on the settlement, 168 Zham said commenting on the ministry’s
statement that it was possible to bring closer positions on a few key
issues in the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement during the 11 June
tripartite meeting of the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian foreign
ministers in Moscow.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are making optimistic statements on the
settlement, but their true positions differ from their statements,
Safaryan told the paper. At present, the two sides can do nothing but
make such ungrounded optimistic statements – simply to show that they
agree upon some things while having totally different intentions deep
in their minds, Safaryan said.
A representative of the opposition Armenian National Congress,
Vladimir Karapetyan, told the paper that he did not rule out that a
document on the fundamental principles of the settlement might be
signed in Kazan. “I believe that in Kazan, [Russian President Dmitriy]
Medvedev will try to eliminate the last existing disagreements between
the sides and have a document signed. There are no doubts anymore.
Taking into consideration that the sides have drawn their positions
closer, it is very likely that Medvedev will succeed in this and the
document [on the fundamental principles of settlement] will be
signed,” the paper quoted Karapetyan as saying.