NO NEGOTIATIONS BEFORE ELECTIONS

Aram Sargsian, the head of Democratic Party of Armenia doesn\’t believe in Robert Kocharian\’s this statement.

– Within the framework of Dortmund congress, the representatives of Armenia, NK and Azerbaijan must meet with Minsk group co-chairmen Mathew Brayza and Yuri Merzlyakov in Snegiri settlement during the meeting on December 7-10. Did that meeting take place?
– That initiative was mine and they agreed. That meeting was foreseen in June but by co-chairmen\’s request it was replaced to a proper time for them, till December. And suddenly, both of them didn\’t manage to participate. Though we were told that the meeting didn\’t held for technical reasons, but I understood that it connected with the political situation. And the situation is the following: the representatives of Armenia has involved in the negotiations so much that they speak of giving the occupied territories back. I\’m sure that only the matter of the date of referendum has remained disputable. And as the logic was different, the co-chairmen didn\’t want to meet with us while we were proposing actions by with different logic. They so hope they\’ll reach success and sign an agreement that we could prevent it. We have written a letter to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen where we explain why we consider that meeting necessary and what it will give us if the circular agreement of the representatives of the population of three countries is discussed and adopted, which has another philosophy that their has. I worry about the following; it is understandable politically what one of the co-chairmen, U.S. wants and what the other wants /Russia/. RF is interested in keeping the current status-quo. And the U.S. is interested in giving the territories back for the refuges come back to their settlements and peacemaking forces enter the territory. We are between two different positions.
– Do you affirm that the co-chairmen will achieve success? Doesn\’t these hopes oppose to Robert Tocharian\’s latest declaration that “No active negotiation will be held in the negotiating process”. He also didn\’t consider moral to use NK conflict in pre-electoral struggle.
– It doesn\’t mean that nothing may happen till May, 2007. Besides, if Mr. Kocharian has decided to sign after the elections, he has designed other rules of the game. It is designed that those parties which are faithful to him will become the majority in the NA and he will have no problem to do in the future what he must to do know. Nowadays situation impedes him to do so. And it isn\’t accidental that Jirayr Seifilian and his adherents are arrested just now. It is obvious that they have involved in the negotiations very much and want to give the territories back. They even give Kelbajar back.
– You emphasized discrepancies of both co-chairmen. While the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen\’s announcement after NKR constitutional referendum proves that they both have a joint opinion on NK status, in particularly it mustn\’t be an independent state.
– But sorry, if the Armenian party doesn\’t clearly express its position and the co-chairmen have already determined the way of settlement, they must see the settlement of the conflict on that standpoint. If the NKR independence must be recognized we must represent it as a basic problem. And if we agree that the problem of status is settled by referendum, everybody must remember that there is no item in the constitution of Azerbaijan according to which referendum may be held in a separate territory. So they negotiate round unknown referendum.