Yerevan deplores U.S. disclosure of proposed Karabakh deal

In an interview with RFE/RL late last week, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said the conflicting parties have been discussing a gradual solution to the dispute that would culminate in a referendum on Karabakh's status. Bryza said the vote would determine the disputed region's status 'at some point' in the future after the liberation of Armenian-occupied lands in Azerbaijan proper.

President Robert Kocharian appears to have been taken aback by the remarks. His press secretary, Viktor Soghomonian, claimed that Bryza unveiled only "some elements of the document proposed to the parties which do not reflect the whole essence of the draft [Karabakh] agreement."

"If similar revelations appear in the media in the future, Armenia will publish all the documents discussed at the talks in the last seven to eight years," Soghomonian told the Russian news agency Regnum. "Namely, the [1998] draft agreement based on the principle of a `common state', the document discussed in Key West [in April 2001] and the draft agreement which was recently discussed in Bucharest. I am sure everything will be crystal clear then."

"Incidentally, all three draft agreements were rejected by Azerbaijan," Soghomonian said.

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