Armenia Plans Karabakh Bill Vote Amid Fresh Talks
Tuesday, 26 October 2010 05:28 | 
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RFE/RL -- Armenia’s parliament speaker on Tuesday said lawmakers in Yerevan will consider passing a bill recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence should there be such a request from the head of state after his fresh talks with Azerbaijan’s leader later this week.
Armenia has not formally recognized Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region as an independent state as the political majority in its parliament has so far regarded the move as premature and potentially harmful to the ongoing internationally mediated talks with Azerbaijan.
Earlier this month the country’s top legislative body was due to vote on a Karabakh recognition bill drafted by the opposition Zharangutyun (Heritage) party.
Earlier this month the country’s top legislative body was due to vote on a Karabakh recognition bill drafted by the opposition Zharangutyun (Heritage) party.
But the party’s leader, Raffi Hovannisian, postponed the vote until the end of October after consultations with speaker Hovik Abrahamian and other leaders of the parliament’s pro-government majority.At a press briefing on Tuesday Abrahamian confirmed that the Zharangutyun-drafted bill might be put to a vote as soon as October 27 or 28 unless the party decided to postpone the vote again.
If held, the vote will come amid a fresh round of talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan around the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.
The presidents of the two countries, Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev, are meeting in Russian’s southern city of Astrakhan on Wednesday. The host of their meeting discussing Karabakh will be Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
It is not yet clear what particular aspect of the currently faltering peace process will be on the agenda of the talks as the sides have released very few details ahead of their meeting.
Responding to a media question as to whether the decision on the Karabakh recognition bill might depend on the outcome of the trilateral meeting in Astrakhan, Abrahamian, who is a senior member of President Sarkisian’s ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), said: “If after the meeting the president suggests that we should recognize Karabakh’s independence, we will gladly do that.”
Earlier this month, the HHK made it clear it would block the bill if it reached the vote in parliament.
