Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Vilayat Guliev, did not discuss during their recent talks in Vienna the possibility of resurrecting the first of the Karabakh peace proposals made by the OSCE Minsk Group in 1997, Noyan Tapan reported on 7 December, citing an Armenian Foreign Ministry statement published in "Azg." In a recent interview with Mediamax News Agency, which observers claim is controlled by Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian, Guliev was quoted as saying that Oskanian had proposed reviving that proposal "with certain reservations" and that the two ministers had agreed to suggest that option to their respective presidents. "Azg" also denied that Oskanian proposed not reviving discussion of the most recent Minsk Group proposal, made in November 1998, envisaging that Azerbaijan and the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic form a common state. Azerbaijan rejected that proposal. "Azg" quoted the Armenian Foreign Ministry as saying that Yerevan's position remains unchanged and that Armenia will consider as a basis for negotiation any proposal that does not stipulate that Nagorno-Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan, according to Noyan Tapan. LF
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