Vardan Oskanyan, Armenia's Foreign Minister, has claimed in Yerevan today that controversies concerning both principles of the peaceful agreement and its nuances still remain in the negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, Trend reports.
Mediamax News Agency reports that answering questions put by journalists during today's press conference in Yerevan, the Head of the Armenian Foreign Office pointed out that a window of possibilities for settling the Karabakh issue was likely to remain opened in 2007 as well.
Mr. Oskanyan said that in the near future, the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents would give concrete instructions to their Foreign Ministers to continue the peaceful negotiations. We can state, with confidence, that the process is not in a dead alley, said Mr. Oskanyan.
Commenting upon the fact that officially Baku continues to call the observation of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity as the basis of the settlement process, and Yerevan's insistence on the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh on self-determination, Mr. Oskanyan claimed that this issue could be settled only via a referendum that was pointed out in the document that both parties were discussing presently.
According to the Armenian Minister, since both parties could not achieve a final agreement concerning the holding of the referendum, it is too early to speak about the details. At the same time, Mr. Oskanyan pointed out that the referendum would be held on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and only those people who had lived there or were still residing there would have the right to take part in it.