OSKANIAN COOLS TALK OF KARABAKH BREAKTHROUGH
By Anna Saghabalian
Radio Libert, Czech Rep.
Dec 18 2007
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian on Tuesday declined to explicitly
endorse Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s upbeat statements on prospects
for a near-term resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Visiting Brussels last week, Sarkisian reportedly said he is confident
that Armenia and Azerbaijan can reach a framework peace accord on
Karabakh before the Armenian presidential election scheduled for
February 19. "I don’t think the presidential election should impact
on these negotiations," he told Reuters.
Commenting on the remarks, Oskanian only implicitly shared Sarkisian’s
stated optimism and said he is not aware of all the details of the
prime minister’s interview with the Western news agency. He said
he has to be always upbeat on peace prospects in his capacity as
Armenia’s chief Karabakh negotiator.
"All in all, I too am optimistic about negotiations," Oskanian told
journalists. "It’s good that the prime minister is also an optimist
like me."
Oskanian acknowledged that President Robert Kocharian has a "more
cautious" attitude on the possibility of a Karabakh breakthrough. "As
they say, a pessimist is an informed optimist," he joked.
Kocharian stated in October that the conflicting parties are unlikely
to agree on the basic principles of a Karabakh settlement, proposed
by international mediators, before next year’s presidential elections
due in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Sarkisian was also quoted by Reuters as implying that the upcoming
presidential election will not hinder an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace
deal because he expects to win it. He stressed that peace proposals
made by the OSCE Minsk Group are "coming with my consent."
Oskanian, however, questioned the veracity of this remark, suggesting
that the Armenian premier only meant to say that he is familiar with
those proposals.
The Minsk Group’s U.S., Russian and French co-chairs presented
Oskanian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, with
the final, modified version of their existing peace plan during an
OSCE ministerial council meeting in Madrid on November 29. They
are expected to visit Baku and Yerevan next month in an apparent
last-ditch attempt to get the two sides to sign up to the proposed
settlement before the 2008 elections.