2006 may become a year of positive shifts in the settlement of the long-standing dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, NKR President Arkady Ghukasian stated in an interview with RFE/RL. He said that international mediators perhaps see an opportune moment as “parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are ending and there are no elections in Karabakh, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, or the United States.” “The feeling is that the mediators are in a hurry,” Ghukasian said, adding Azerbaijan is showing a more constructive approach hoping for a positive conclusion about its parliamentary elections. “Of course, I consider it positive that today Azerbaijan speaks about the status of Karabakh, does not avoid discussions. If you remember, in the past Azerbaijan spoke only about issues of particular interest to them. Today one can assume that Azerbaijan is perhaps ready to work in a more constructive field. But I find it difficult to say what the degree of this constructivism is and whether it will prove enough for the settlement of the problem. On the other hand, I am convinced that the international community is in a hurry to speed up the process of settling this problem,” Ghukasian said.
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