Kocharian complains on Karabakh issue to EU officials

At talks with the foreign minister of Finland, the country, which currently holds the chairmanship of the EU, the president stressed that Armenia "considers a plan of actions on the rapprochement with the EU as a new possibility to carry out task-oriented and coordinated reforms."

Focusing on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Kocharian said he believed such conflicts could be solved only through negotiations, tete-a-tete discussions and never through a voting and passing of resolutions. He referred to an offer by GUAM states (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) to introduce into the agenda of a U.N. General Assembly session an issue of 'frozen conflicts.'

The European Union puts much emphasis on progress and democratic development in the Caucasian region, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said, for his part. He particularly emphasized the importance of holding free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections in Armenia. Itar-Tass