First president of Armenia:

Any resolution of the Karabakh conflict today will be worse than it could be before, unfortunately, Levon Ter- Petrosyan, the first president of Armenia, leader of the oppositional Armenian National Congress, said in an interview with Moskovskiye Novosti.

"It will be very difficult now to achieve what we could achieve before. There is a single detail that differs from that project - the  idea of the referendum of the status of Nagorny Karabakh. But, that idea has not been confirmed officially yet. Even this word is avoided  now. They speak of plebiscite, poll etc. There is no talk on the  legal consequences of that referendum. All this shows that everything  is much more difficult now," he said.

"There is a relevant document saying that exchange of territories was  implied between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Karabakh was supposedly to  join Armenia and Nakhjevan - Azerbaijan via Meghri corridor. No one  invented that. But I would not agree on such a decision then. In that  case, we would lose the border with Iran, which is of more strategic  importance for Armenia than Karabakh. Unfortunately, much has been  lost over those13 years. This is the lost time, development  opportunities and people who left Armenia forever. They try to do  what we could do 13 years ago now but at a very high cost," he said.   In 1998, Ter-Petrosyan said, the parties were very close to the  resolution. At first, there was the co-called package  settlement-scheme. Karabakh opposed that and Azerbaijan agreed  partially, while Armenia agreed on it.  Then a stage-by-stage  settle-scheme was introduced. It was almost the same plan as the one  on the table now in terms of the Madrid Principles:  return of the  part of the liberated territories that earlier did not include Lachin  and Kelbajar, deployment of international peacekeepers along the new
border of Karabakh, reopening of roads, establishment of an interim status of Karabakh, maintenance of all the state structures of  Nagorny Karabakh including Army, Police etc, non-interference of  Azerbaijan into the internal affairs of Karabakh, and discussion of the final status of Karabakh in future.

"All this existed and gave the same situation as we have now but in a reduced territory but with a guaranteed international treaty, with  guaranteed international peacekeeping forces, with guaranteed  deblockade of roads, including railways. Naturally, the Turkish  border would open at once. Armenia would get an opportunity to  develop. What we have now is the fivefold higher GDP and budget of  Azerbaijan and tenfold higher military budget as compared to Armenia.  In fact, Azerbaijan has much more tenacious position and tougher  demands," Levon Ter-Peterosyan said.