Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Karabakh People to Determine Status, Says Bryza

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

  • Karabakh People to Determine Status, Says Bryza

    Karabakh People to Determine Status, Says Bryza

    http://www.asbarez.com/2009/08/07/karabakh- people-to-determine-status-says-bryza/
    By Asbarez Staff on Aug 7th, 2009


    YEREVAN (RFE/RL) - Washington's top Nagorno-Karabakh negotiator hinted
    Friday the OSCE Minsk Group continues to uphold the Karabakh
    Armenians' right to determine their status in a referendum.

    `What I can not tell you today is when the final legal status of
    Nagorno-Karabakh will be determined through a vote,' said the US Minsk
    Group Co-chair Matthew Bryza said.

    `But you did not hear me say that Nagorno-Karabakh will be returned to
    Azerbaijan. I never said that. I just said that the interim status
    will be determined now and the final legal status will be determined
    by the people of Karabakh,' added Bryza.

    The US official insisted Friday that Armenia and Azerbaijan remain
    `very close' to ending their long-running territorial dispute as he
    began a fresh tour of the region aimed at keeping up the momentum in
    the peace process.

    Bryza met President Serzh Sarkisian to discuss ways of overcoming the
    conflicting parties' remaining disagreements over a framework peace
    accord drafted by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the Minsk
    Group. Sarkisian's office released no details of the meeting.

    Sarkisian and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, apparently failed
    to bridge their differences during their most recent talks held in
    Moscow on July 17-18. The mediators hope that the two leaders will
    achieve a breakthrough at their next meeting due in October.

    `There was no formal agreement [at Moscow,] but they are very close,'
    Bryza said, speaking at a youth forum held in the Armenian resort town
    of Tsaghkadzor later in the day. He expressed hope that `we will be at
    the point of this agreement on the last few elements of the basic
    principles that remain not yet agreed' after the co-chairs visit the
    conflict zone in late September.

    Bryza and the two other Minsk Group co-chairs met in Krakow, Poland
    late last month to prepare what they call an `updated version' of
    their proposed basic principles of a Karabakh settlement. The
    U.S. official said their consultations were based `what the presidents
    discussed in Moscow and what they told us co-chairs after their
    meeting.'
Working...
X