For the first time, the new president of the OSCE and Belgium’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel de Gucht paid a two day visit to Armenia in order to “prepare both presidents for an effective meeting.” Gucht also met with president of Karabagh Arkadi Ghukassian during the evening a couple of days ago. He also held a press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vartan Oskanyan.
In contrast to the rest of the countries, president of Karabagh Arkadi Ghukassian is not too optimistic about the peace settlement negotiations. In general, many are talking about the Karabagh peace settlement and primarily about the possibility that it may be solved in the year 2006. However, Arkadi Ghoukassian is of the opinion that both sides are far from coming to terms.
“Judging from the announcements made by the Azeri authorities, I don’t think that the sides are even close to a solution,” said Arkadi Ghukassian after the meeting with Karel de Gucht . He added:
“When I hear how the Azeri president assigns the scientists of his country to prove that the people of Karabagh are just “guests on their soil”, I don’t understand how we can come to a solution. Besides that, I don’t have to be optimistic just based on hearing the people are talking about the 600 million dollar military budget and the settlement by force.”
Arkadi Ghukassian raised the issue of Karabagh’s need to participate in the negotiations and stated that there can be no peace settlement without the people’s participation. According to Ghukassian, the Karabagh side has many issues concerning the packet of the peace settlement. Ghukassian talked about that during his meeting with Karel de Gucht. Karel de Gucht agreed to this and said that the people of Karabagh must definitely participate in the peace settlement.
“What I don’t understand is why they don’t talk about this with us. I told the OSCE president that if Azerbaijan wants to see Karabagh as part of its territory, then that depends on them. But what we want is freedom. When Azerbaijan leads negotiations with Armenia and refuses to involve Karabagh, it becomes clear that official Baku has one aim: to present Armenia as an aggressor. I consider that propaganda. When Azerbaijan starts leading negotiations with Karabagh, that will mean that Baku is not spreading propaganda and really wants to talk about the peace settlement. We have many issues that we would like to discuss with Azerbaijan and if the Azeri side really wants to solve the conflict soon, then it has to speed up the negotiations with Karbagh,” said the president of Karabagh.
As for what Karabagh’s outlook, according to Arkadi Ghukassian, the Republic of Nagorno Karabagh declared its independence years ago; the authorities of Karabagh serve the people and must defend them.
“We will not give up our independence. We are ready to discuss the rest of the issues. We have no closed topics. We are ready to discuss any issue raised by Azerbaijan. Of course, under one condition: Azerbaijan must discuss the issues raised by us. Everything is mutual. Leading negotiations is mutual. We are honest and ready to make compromises and we expect the same from Azerbaijan,” said A. Ghukassian to journalists.
Karabagh needs to be internationally recognized
During the press conference held by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vartan Oskanyan, president of the OSCE Karel de Gucht said that the OSCE is having difficulty in deciding whether or not the people of Karabagh will participate in the peace settlement negotiations because Karabagh is not internationally recognized. The OSCE president understands that they are dealing with the future of Karabagh.
“Since Karabagh is not internationally recognized, that makes things harder for both sides,” he said. Mr. Karel de Gucht hopes that the two presidents will be “wise and daring” during the meeting in Paris and come to terms.
“I think that it is very important, that after coming to terms with the principles of the peace settlement, the two sides will use those principles. I have also said that to both presidents,” said Karel de Gucht.
As for the present document of the peace settlement, Vartan Oskanyan responded to this instead of the OSCE president. According to him, the present-day document concerning the Karabagh peace settlement is the one page document planned out by the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan during their meeting in London.
“Today we have a one page document. There are general principles which may turn into a full plan if the presidents come to terms. It is also possible that the document will be put aside and other issues will be discussed,” said Oskanyan. He added:
“Presidents have nothing to do with documents; they can reject the document proposed by the OSCE co-presidents and focus on other issues that they want to talk about.”
Karel de Gucht had this to say about the allocation of peacekeeping forces.
“We must allocate peacekeeping forces, restore everything and both sides must get guarantees from international organizations.”
During the press conference, journalists reminded the OSCE president that Karabagh and Azerbaijan signed a declaration of ceasefire in 1994, however, that has been infringed upon a couple of times throughout the years. What guarantees does the OSCE have that this agreement, if the presidents do come to terms, will not be violated?
“The OSCE does not have forces and does not plan on having them either. The OSCE plays the role of a broker-we can say which country owns those forces, how long and then sign an agreement between the two sides,” said Karel de Gucht. As to which country’s forces can be allocated in the Karabagh conflict zone, he did not say anything. Vartan Oskanyan claimed that it is still too early to talk about that.
“After all, the OSCE must solve that problem or any other corresponding body that has taken on the responsibility of allocating the forces. Of course, all this must be done with the consent of both sides,” said Vartan Oskanyan. He added:
“I will make this clear right now: we will not accept the peacekeeping forces from Turkey.”
P.S. Vartan Oskanyan announced yesterday that Armenia is interested in keeping the peace in Iran and the people of Yerevan are worried about the development of the situation at hand in Iran. According to Oskanyan, Armenia and Iran have established good ties-a gas pipeline is being constructed and this pipeline is very important for securing the energy field in Armenia; there are some joint projects, trade circulation is growing and the countries are collaborating in other fields. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vartan Oskanyan hopes that the nuclear weapon project and Iran’s punishments will not make their way to the UN Security Council and all issues will be solved through diplomacy.