Armenian Oppositionist Says Karabakh Talks At 'Worrisome Point'

YEREVAN -- A leading member of Armenia's main opposition alliance says he sees "serious changes" in the current Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process, which he claims has reached "a very worrisome point," RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

David Shahnazarian, a former national security chief and member of the Armenian National Congress, made his comments to RFE/RL while assessing a July 17 meeting in Moscow between Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

Shahnazarian described the "Madrid principles" -- revealed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group co-chairs on July 10 -- as "alarming" and containing "no positive elements."

Shahnazarian added that the Karabakh resolution process has gained a "new quality" and that some elements of it resemble the Dayton Accords, which ended the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995.

Though admittedly disappointed that no agreements were signed at the meeting, OSCE co-chair Matthew Bryza said the meeting was unprecedented in its "openness of discussion and activeness in exchange of opinions."