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KOCHARIAN DENIES AGREEING TO LAND SWAP WITH AZERBAIJAN
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Feb 11 2008
President Robert Kocharian has dismissed as a "cheap pre-election ploy"
his predecessor Levon Ter-Petrosian's claims that he had agreed to a
controversial land swap with Azerbaijan that would strip Armenia of
its vital land border with Iran.
The pro-Ter-Petrosian daily "Haykakan Zhamanak" published on
Saturday what it described as the text of a Nagorno-Karabakh peace
plan drafted by international mediators and allegedly accepted by
Kocharian in 1999. Under that document, Karabakh would become an
internationally recognized part of Armenia in return for the latter
ceding its southeastern Meghri district to Azerbaijan. The remote
area borders on Iran and provides as for the shortest overland link
between Azerbaijan proper and its Nakhichevan exclave.
The alleged plan was a major theme of Ter-Petrosian's speech at a
Saturday rally in Yerevan. The former president denounced it as a
"great conspiracy against the Republic of Armenia" and said the
loss of a common border with Iran would have disastrous consequences
for the landlocked country blockaded by neighboring Azerbaijan and
Turkey. "The document is authentic," he said.
Ter-Petrosian claimed that the late Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian
and parliament speaker Karen Demirchian strongly opposed the plan at a
meeting of Armenia's National Security Council which he said took place
shortly before the October 27, 1999 armed attack on parliament in which
both of them were killed. He said law-enforcement authorities must
regard that as "one of the likely theories" of the still mysterious
assassination of the two top leaders of the the now defunct Miasnutyun
(Unity) alliance.
"I state with all responsibility that Karen Demirchian and Vazgen
Sarkisian foiled that conspiracy, that treason at the expense of
their lives," Ter-Petrosian charged, again implicating Kocharian
and his chief lieutenant, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, in the
parliament shootings.
Kocharian was quick to deny the allegations through a spokesman.
Victor Soghomonian, the presidential press secretary, insisted in an
interview with the Mediamax news agency that the would-be land swap
"has never been a subject of Karabakh settlement negotiations."
"Clearly, the February 9 report is aimed at preventing discussion
of Levon Ter-Petrosian's peculiar approaches to the conflict's
resolution," he said.
"In short, that is a quite cheap pre-election ploy," added Soghomonian.
Other Armenian officials did say in the past, however, that the
so-called "Meghri variant" of a Karabakh settlement was put forward
by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in
1999. But they insisted that Yerevan rejected it out of hand.
Visiting Yerevan in November 2000, Steven Sestanovich, the then top
U.S. envoy to the former Soviet Union, indicated that the land swap
is still on the agenda of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. "From
what I hear of public discussions that doesn't sound like an area
where there is a lot of agreement," he told reporters at the time.
"But I think it's an important part of discussions of this kind -
if they are undertaken in good faith and with the aim of seeking a
real solution - not to rule out any ideas."
The months leading up to the Armenian parliament massacre were marked
by a flurry of diplomatic activity over Karabakh. Kocharian and then
Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliev held three face-to-face meetings in
as many months and appeared to have made considerable progress towards
the conflict's resolution. "I am confident that we will find a solution
to the problem, one which I will be able to announce sincerely to
our people," Kocharian said in televised remarks on October 18, 1999.
Six days earlier, Kocharian received a message from then U.S. Vice
President Al Gore which, according to his press service, welcomed
"important progress" in Karabakh talks. Gore was also cited as
urging the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to "complete this phase
of negotiations" before the OSCE's November 1999 summit in Istanbul.
Another senior U.S. official, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott
met Kocharian and Vazgen Sarkisian in Yerevan on October 27, 1999
just hours before the latter was gunned down along with Demirchian
and six other officials in the National Assembly.
Aliev and Kocharian began their series of negotiations in summer 1999
following the collapse of another Minsk Group plan that envisaged
the establishment of a loose "common state" between Karabakh and
Azerbaijan. The plan put forward in November 1998 was largely accepted
by the Armenian side but rejected by Baku.
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Feb 11 2008
President Robert Kocharian has dismissed as a "cheap pre-election ploy"
his predecessor Levon Ter-Petrosian's claims that he had agreed to a
controversial land swap with Azerbaijan that would strip Armenia of
its vital land border with Iran.
The pro-Ter-Petrosian daily "Haykakan Zhamanak" published on
Saturday what it described as the text of a Nagorno-Karabakh peace
plan drafted by international mediators and allegedly accepted by
Kocharian in 1999. Under that document, Karabakh would become an
internationally recognized part of Armenia in return for the latter
ceding its southeastern Meghri district to Azerbaijan. The remote
area borders on Iran and provides as for the shortest overland link
between Azerbaijan proper and its Nakhichevan exclave.
The alleged plan was a major theme of Ter-Petrosian's speech at a
Saturday rally in Yerevan. The former president denounced it as a
"great conspiracy against the Republic of Armenia" and said the
loss of a common border with Iran would have disastrous consequences
for the landlocked country blockaded by neighboring Azerbaijan and
Turkey. "The document is authentic," he said.
Ter-Petrosian claimed that the late Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian
and parliament speaker Karen Demirchian strongly opposed the plan at a
meeting of Armenia's National Security Council which he said took place
shortly before the October 27, 1999 armed attack on parliament in which
both of them were killed. He said law-enforcement authorities must
regard that as "one of the likely theories" of the still mysterious
assassination of the two top leaders of the the now defunct Miasnutyun
(Unity) alliance.
"I state with all responsibility that Karen Demirchian and Vazgen
Sarkisian foiled that conspiracy, that treason at the expense of
their lives," Ter-Petrosian charged, again implicating Kocharian
and his chief lieutenant, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, in the
parliament shootings.
Kocharian was quick to deny the allegations through a spokesman.
Victor Soghomonian, the presidential press secretary, insisted in an
interview with the Mediamax news agency that the would-be land swap
"has never been a subject of Karabakh settlement negotiations."
"Clearly, the February 9 report is aimed at preventing discussion
of Levon Ter-Petrosian's peculiar approaches to the conflict's
resolution," he said.
"In short, that is a quite cheap pre-election ploy," added Soghomonian.
Other Armenian officials did say in the past, however, that the
so-called "Meghri variant" of a Karabakh settlement was put forward
by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in
1999. But they insisted that Yerevan rejected it out of hand.
Visiting Yerevan in November 2000, Steven Sestanovich, the then top
U.S. envoy to the former Soviet Union, indicated that the land swap
is still on the agenda of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. "From
what I hear of public discussions that doesn't sound like an area
where there is a lot of agreement," he told reporters at the time.
"But I think it's an important part of discussions of this kind -
if they are undertaken in good faith and with the aim of seeking a
real solution - not to rule out any ideas."
The months leading up to the Armenian parliament massacre were marked
by a flurry of diplomatic activity over Karabakh. Kocharian and then
Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliev held three face-to-face meetings in
as many months and appeared to have made considerable progress towards
the conflict's resolution. "I am confident that we will find a solution
to the problem, one which I will be able to announce sincerely to
our people," Kocharian said in televised remarks on October 18, 1999.
Six days earlier, Kocharian received a message from then U.S. Vice
President Al Gore which, according to his press service, welcomed
"important progress" in Karabakh talks. Gore was also cited as
urging the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to "complete this phase
of negotiations" before the OSCE's November 1999 summit in Istanbul.
Another senior U.S. official, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott
met Kocharian and Vazgen Sarkisian in Yerevan on October 27, 1999
just hours before the latter was gunned down along with Demirchian
and six other officials in the National Assembly.
Aliev and Kocharian began their series of negotiations in summer 1999
following the collapse of another Minsk Group plan that envisaged
the establishment of a loose "common state" between Karabakh and
Azerbaijan. The plan put forward in November 1998 was largely accepted
by the Armenian side but rejected by Baku.