Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

No 'progress or breakthrough' in Kazan

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • No 'progress or breakthrough' in Kazan

    NO 'PROGRESS OR BREAKTHROUGH' IN KAZAN
    By Tatoul Hakobian in Kazan

    AZG Armenian Daily #154, 31/08/2005

    Kazan meeting

    Yerevan Considers the Meeting of Presidents Positive Advancement

    The foreign minister of Azerbaijan stated, according to ITAR-TASS
    agency, that the results of the meeting between presidents Ilham
    Aliyev and Robert Kocharian on the sidelines of Kazan summit do
    not allow saying that progress or breakthrough was achieved. But,
    Elmar Mamediarov underscored, that negotiations of the presidents are
    always important as they try to bring things together. "Armenia and
    Azerbaijan will need one or two weeks to analyze results and ideas
    offered at the meeting as well as to think to what extent are the
    sides ready to move forward", Mamediarov said.

    Karabakh regulation talks between Kocharian and Aliyev lasted 2
    hours. After the meeting, neither the presidents, nor foreign ministers
    and OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen made any statement for the media. The
    spokesperson of the Armenian President made the only comment. "The
    Armenian side has positive evaluation of the Kazan meeting and thinks
    there was positive advance in talks process. The foreign ministers
    will keep on working with the same spirits considering results of
    this meeting", Viktor Soghomonian said.

    Aboard the plane to Yerevan, journalists tried to inquire
    from President Kocharian about results of meeting with Ilham
    Aliyev. Kocharian said that the meeting was positive on the whole and
    said that the talks will reach a good final if they don't stray. The
    foreign minister was also optimistic.

    Oskanian said that positive tendencies have not vanished and though
    the date of the next meeting within Prague Process has not been set
    the co-chairs will try to strike the iron while it is hot.

    Foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as Minsk group
    mediators Yuri Merzlyakov, Steven Mann and Bernard Fassie took
    part in discussion of some issues at Kocharian-Aliyev meeting. The
    Russian President was also supposed to take part in the meeting but
    failed to do so. This can mean that the Russian side did not expect
    serious progress in Karabakh regulation or Vladimir Putin was busy
    with CIS affairs.

    'Armenia Will Be My Final Destination'

    National minorities of Tatarstan also took part in the celebration of
    the 1000th anniversary of Tatar capital of Kazan during the CIS summit.

    Armenians settled in Kazan in 10th century. Head of the local Armenian
    community Mikhail Khachaturian says that Armenian merchants used to
    take satin, carpets and cochineal from Volga to Bulgaria. Armenians
    grew in number in Kazan and neighboring regions as a result of
    Seljuk incursion in 11th century. "There are now 7.000 Armenians in
    Tatarstan, particularly in Kazan and Naberezhniye Chelny. Most of
    them are engaged in building and business but you can find them in
    every sphere", he says.

    Kazan used to be even a center of Armenian studies once. In 1842-54,
    Stepanos Nazaryants headed the department of Armenian Studies at the
    faculty of Oriental Studies of Kazan University before transferring
    it to Saint Petersburg. In 1920, one of Kazan's streets used to bear
    the name of Armyanskaya Str (today it's called Spartakovskaya).

    Though Armenia is considered to be Russia's military ally, a friendly
    state, cases of harassment against Armenians are nothing rare. In
    Krasnodar, for one, Armenians are attended as Caucasians in the
    negative sense. What's the situation in Tatarstan? "People know
    Armenians as a nation with ancient history. Someone ignorant will
    certainly take us as "black" but intelligent ones value Armenians. In
    one word, there are people with negative and positive attitude",
    Khachaturian says.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X