February 28, 2004 - 19:53 AMT
ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SHARES INTERNATIONAL MEDIATORS OPINION ON STALEMATE IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
There is a grain of truth in the statements that settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict has reached a stalemate, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said when commenting on the corresponding statement of Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov. In the Minister's opinion, it is due to the Azeri party not displaying any desire to continue the talks. The present non-constructive stand of official Baku can negatively tell on the total settlement of the Karabakh problem, he supposes. Additional tension, in V. Oskanian's opinion, will be brought into the negotiation process by the recent murder of an Armenian officer in Budapest. "If Azerbaijan justifies and makes à hero out of the Azeri serviceman in future, the tension will hardly decrease," he noted. Being asked a question on the probability of resumption of the war in Karabakh, the Armenian Foreign Minister noted he did not see such a threat. Such a policy of Azerbaijan will simply lead to dragging the peace process and losing of what was acquired during years, V. Oskanian noted.