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Bryza recalled Kocharyan’s step

Politics
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The three OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs worked on the updated Madrid Principles on the negotiations table for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution on July 25-26 in the Polish city of Krakow. The Co-Chairs will present the proposals after they are finalized. U.S. Co-Chair Matthew Bryza mentioned that the Co-Chairs worked on the Madrid Principles within the framework of the announcement made by Presidents Obama, Medvedev and Sarkozy.

Russian Co-Chair Yuri Merzlyakov told presses that the next Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting is scheduled for mid-September. The Co-Chairs didn't exclude that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be settled by the end of 2009. Let us mention that this is the last visit of the Co-Chairs together in Krakow because the U.S. and Russian Co-Chairs will soon be replaced by the new co-chairs. U.S. Co-Chair Matthew Bryza expressed gratitude to U.S. President Barack Obama last week for working with the U.S. administration for so many years.

"There comes a point when it is necessary to move on to another post," said Bryza, affirming the rumors about his leave. Bryza's statement contradicts his other statement made in Yerevan according to which U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had told him that the most important issue for her today is the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and that Bryza should be in the Minsk Group. According to news, Bryza is planning to move to the post of U.S. Ambassador in Baku.

At the moment, all parties of the negotiations, besides Azerbaijan, accept that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can't be resolved without the participation of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. In fact, Bryza recently told the "Liberty" Radio's Azerbaijani service: "A couple of years ago the Nagorno-Karabakh representatives were sitting at the table of negotiations, but later Yerevan took the decision to represent Nagorno-Karabakh. The mutual consent is needed for Nagorno-Karabakh to return to the table and I hope that that will happen in a certain stage in the future."

Stressing the importance of Nagorno-Karabakh's participation in the negotiations, Bryza also said that at the moment, the negotiations are being held through the mediators. "We heard their opinion and are working toward including their opinions in the negotiations. It is necessary to know the people's opinion when making any decision. We have to take that into account no matter what. Sooner or later, and I hope that it will be soon, Nagorno-Karabakh will participate in the negotiations."

This goes to say that the Co-Chairs are reminding the Armenian side that the Armenian authorities were to blame for pushing Nagorno-Karabakh out of the negotiations and at the time, the President of the Republic of Armenia was Robert Kocharyan.