ARMENIA TO WITHDRAW FROM BILATERAL TALKS WITH AZERBAIJAN OVER KARABAKH.

Armenia will no longer negotiate a settlement of the Karabakh conflict directly with Azerbaijan without the participation of Karabakh. The announcement was made by president Levon Ter-Petrosian’s top foreign policy adviser, Jirair Liparitian, at an international conference in London. Liparitian also urged direct negotiations between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Karabakh, Haidar Aliev and Robert Kocharian. Liparitian indicated that such meetings have been held in the past but went unreported. He suggested that Yerevan had made its latest decision in response to the pro-Azerbaijani decision of the recent OSCE summit in Lisbon regarding the principles of settling the conflict. (Noyan-Tapan, January 24 and 25)

The announcement would imply a cessation of the series of bilateral meetings between Liparitian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Vafa Guluzade, which have been proceeding parallel with the negotiations sponsored by the OSCE’s Minsk Conference countries. Karabakh is officially a party to the latter process.

Turkmenistan Drifting Toward Russian Position on Caspian Sea.