Nalbandian: Negotiating with language of blackmail is impossible
ArmInfo. If there are new initiatives to organize a meeting on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, it will be informed about. On March 10, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated this in Yerevan during a joint press conference with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotsias when answering the question whether there are any initiatives on the part of the Russian side to organize a meeting at the level of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"You know that we do not hide anything from society and openly and publicly speak about everything. Azerbaijan always presents everything in a different desirable light. Today we are talking only about the visit of mediators to the region. Armenia has never refused to meet, both at the ministerial level and at a higher level. But such meetings should be properly prepared and the issue is not only in the organization. The Azerbaijani side should be ready for negotiations, and not imitate them and speak in the language of blackmail. It is impossible to negotiate in the language of blackmail, and Bacu has entered a deadlock, trying to justify itself before its own society, stating that they have similar positions in the certain issues with the international community. The reality is completely different", the minister said.
Touching upon the statement of the Russian Foreign Minister following the meeting with his Azerbaijani colleague in Moscow, due to the fact that thanks to many years of contacts it was possible to develop a common understanding of the key issues to be resolved, however, two or three specific topics that are axial for the final package are still being discussed, Nalbandian noted that if we compare the statements of Lavrov and Mamedyarov, then it strikes one's eye how different they are from each other. He recalled that during the long-term negotiations, proposals and points on the settlement of the conflict have been worked out, which can not be separated from each other, since this is a set of proposals". As for the question of on which points did not reach agreement, I will say one thing, this is the negotiation process and if we now presented points on which we did not reach agreement, then there would be no sense in the negotiations. Our approaches, as I have repeatedly stated, are in tune with the approaches of the international community and mediators. It is Azerbaijan that constantly withdraws from these proposals, not Armenia, and not only in the essence of the negotiation process, but also on such matters as restoring the atmosphere of trust, introducing mechanisms for investigating incidents", resumed the Armenian Foreign Minister.
To note, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after the meeting with his Azerbaijani colleague Elmar Mammadyarov said that Russia expects that the Karabakh conflict can be settled. According to him, the results of long-term contacts show this, after which they managed to develop a common understanding of key issues to be resolved. "First of all, it concerns security issues, humanitarian issues, questions of the return of those areas that are around Karabakh and are not currently controlled by Azerbaijan, determination of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh (certainly taking into account the opinion of those people who live there), coordinating the parameters of the international peacekeeping forces. For most of these aspects of the final settlement, we have agreement, but two or three specific topics that are key to the final package are still being discussed. I will not dissemble, we are still far from seeing the situation when the sides will work out a unified approach to these remaining issues. I repeat, most of the other aspects we consider to be a quick enough solvable, but a couple of key issues, which we spoke about in detail today, still require additional efforts", Lavrov said.