September 14, 2006 - 16:54 AMT
Transferring Karabakh Issue to UN Unacceptable to Armenia
Armenia accepts and respects the right of each country to present a question or an agenda item at the UN, stated acting Spokesperson for the Armenian MFA Vladimir Karapetyan, when commenting on inclusion of the issue of protracted conflicts in GUAM states in the UN GA session agenda. "Although this particular item has reached the General Assembly Agenda according to UN procedures, however the fact that the UN General Committee rejected this initiative and that the item passed into the General Assembly with a mere 16 in favor, 15 against, clearly indicates the mood of the international community. The initiative has been presented by the GUAM, of which Azerbaijan is a part. The fact that Azerbaijan has presented such an initiative in such a forum is evidence again that Azerbaijan is backing down from the right of self-determination identified in the last version of the negotiating document that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have put on the table, as well as from discussions surrounding the right of Nagorno Karabakh to determine its status through a referendum," Karapetyan noted. On the other hand, he underscored that if Azerbaijan's purpose is to delay and postpone the settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the OSCE framework with the intention of later transferring that process to other forums, that is categorically unacceptable for Armenia. "In that case, Azerbaijan must sit around the negotiating table with Nagorno Karabakh," the Spokesperson said, reports the MFA Press Office.