David Shahnazarian: "Karabakh's inclusion on the UN agenda is a very bad development for the Armenian side"

"I think we should expect solutions to that problem no sooner than in 2012," Sahakian said in a most pessimistic statement on the issue made by a senior Armenian official in recent times.

Although Sahakian leads the parliament faction of Armenia's largest government force, he and other senior Republicans are hardly as privy to details of the Karabakh peace process as Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian or Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian are. The two men have been far less downbeat on peace prospects.

David Shahnazarian, a prominent representative of the former ruling Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh), described the issue's inclusion on the UN agenda as a "very bad" development for the Armenian side. He cited Sahakian's remarks to repeat long-standing HHSh claims that the current Armenian leadership is not interested in a compromise solution to the Karabakh dispute.

"At some point in the future, the Armenian authorities will have no choice but to agree to much worse peace terms," said Shahnazarian.

But Sahakian countered that the international community is no longer trying to place Karabakh back under Azerbaijani control. He also claimed that it believes the Armenian-controlled territory is now "much more democratic" than Armenia. RFE/RL