Kocharian Says, No Peace Plan Without Karabakh

YEREVAN (Armenpress)--President Robert Kocharian said Friday the content of a package of proposals designed by the OSCE Minsk Group for peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue and its general rationale are acceptable for Armenia, but he added that regarding some points of the document that was handed to Armenia and Azerbaijan in late November, Armenia has a different opinion. He said the package of basic principles for the peaceful settlement of the conflict allows the sides to seek a solution that would benefit all sides. Kocharian was speaking to journalists during a visit to Yerevan City Hall. He said he did not expect a soonest solution, saying also the talks will be continued by Armenia's next president Kocharian was asked to comment on a remarks by the French co-chair, Bernard Fassier who said that it was up to Armenian leadership to decide whether to involve the Karabakh side into the talks or not because it was left out of the process by Armenian leadership. Kocharian said Armenia never decided to leave Karabakh out. He explained that as a result of his active talks with late Azeri president Heydar Aliyev, which nearly resulted in signing a peaceful agreement in 2001 in Key West, USA, Nagorno-Karabakh was left out. He added that before that the talks were actually frozen and in a deadlock. He said Nagorno-Karabakh is in the process as co-chairs visit Stepanakert and negotiate with its leadership. Kocharian said no peaceful agreement could be signed with Nagorno-Karabakh authorities. He said Karabakh would be involved into the talks once the sides agreed on the basic conflict settlement principles.

Friday, January 18, 2008