HELSINKI (Combined Sources)–“I’m not very optimistic about the resolution of the Karabakh conflict,” President Robert Kocharian said Tuesday after the delivering a speech at the Alexander Institute of the Helsinki University.
Kocharian, who is on an official visit to Finland explained that most of the provisions of the current proposed peace plan have been agreed upon, adding there were three or four principal issues, on which there are disagreemen’s by the sides.
“This is a movement in different directions: the document is brought to some reasonable shape, but what is happening in reality is quite a different process. That is why I’m not that optimistic,” noted Kocharian, who attributed the situation to Azerbaijan’s continued threats to resolve the conflict via military actions and bolstering its military budget.
He said there is a possibility of a state-by-stage solution, but that could take place during the implementation process. Kocharian said there should be no preconditions, such as return of territories and only then a discussion of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status.
“The conflict should be solved by a fully agreed package, and implementation of some of its final components may be delayed because of technical, political, objective and subjective reasons,” he said.
He said Armenia deman’s that Nagorno-Karabakh has an overland connection with Armenia.
“It is apparent that Nagorno-Karabakh will not be able to survive as an enclave,” he said
Asked whether there is any connection between the conflicts existing in the South Caucasus, the Armenian President noted that the similarity is that all of these conflicts are the immediate consequence of the collapse of USSR and the Socialist camp in general. As a rule, such processes occur in periods of global changes.
“I’m confident that the solution of these conflicts is not interrelated, although I think that their solution will bring to fewer problems than their protraction or freezing,” said Kocharian.
There is the approach that if one of the conflicts, i.e. Kosovo, is solved, it will lead to a chain reaction.
