'Sarkozy will further press on Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh issue'

France will increase the pressure on Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, head of the Center of Political Innovations and Technologies, political scientist Mubariz Ahmedoglu said a briefing on Tuesday.

He noted de facto head of Nagorno Karabakh Bako Sahakyan makes unintelligible and hard-to-explain steps.

"While important people were in Nagorno-Karabakh, Sahakyan made a surprise visit to Greece and met there with leaders of the Armenian community, the Armenian Church in Greece and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party. Despite the fact that the Armenian media has always covered widely few meetings of Sahakyan, this time they distributed only short information," the political scientist said.

Sahakyan, in his interview with "Hayastan" newspaper after a meeting in Greece, made two sensational statements.

"First, Sahakyan noted the possibility of returning some land to Azerbaijan before determining the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Secondly, he noted the existence of settlement option. Despite the fact that the first statement attracted attention of the Armenians and caused their dissatisfaction, they didn't not pay attention to the second statement," Mr Ahmedoglu said.

He said formerly such statements of Armenian leaders were perceived as having no real grounds, spoken for the sake of politics or negotiations.

"But the fact that these statements were made in presence of the Armenian lobby in Greece, which faced a very serious crisis, significantly affected Sahakyan's opportunities for maneuver. Until that time, the maneuver of Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue was as follows: the Armenian leaders had a manner to speak freely, but they linked everything to Nagorno-Karabakh: "Without the consent of the Nagorno-Karabakh no document will be accepted". But today Sahakyan has to repeat what President Sargsyan said two years ago for the maneuver," Mr Ahmedoglu said.

He said one of the countries which has been most affected by the sanctions of the European Union on Iran's oil is Greece. Greece buys daily 100,000 barrels of oil from Iran.

"The termination of oil supplies for unknown for Greece reasons could further complicate the hopeless situation in this country. The French President may ask the President of Azerbaijan to supply oil to Greece, and on compromise terms," Mr Ahmedoglu said.

Statements Sahakyan made after his visit to Greece, lead to the conclusion that in the case of improving the position of Azerbaijan towards Greece at the request of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in return Sarkozy will increase the pressure on Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, the political analyst added.

"It can be assumed that Sahakyan's statements are based on the principle "Consent to return the seven regions of Azerbaijan before determining the status of Nagorno-Karabakh". Greece and France should not rely on statements of Sahakyan in an interview with "Hayastan" concerning his willingness to compromise. Making promises and not fulfilling them is the national trait of Armenians," Mr Ahmedoglu said.


/Trend/