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During a conversation with reporters, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan summarized the outcome of the meeting of Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, held in Bern today.

The correspondent of Panorama.am reports from Bern that the Armenian FM reminded those present that about two dozen meetings at the level of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have taken place in the last 7 years, and during some of those meetings the sides were quite close to reaching an agreement.

“Yet Azerbaijan took a step back each time. Quite a long time, over a year has passed since the latest summit held in Paris in October last year, and it was important to organize a new meeting,” Nalbandyan said, expressing gratitude to the Swiss government and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs for their efforts to this end.

According to Nalbandyan, the purpose of meetings at a presidential level is to make progress in the Karabakh peace talks.

“But in order to achieve progress, Azerbaijan should also be geared up for it. In reality the opposite is the case. The agenda of the meeting was dictated by an escalation of the situation, Azerbaijan’s provocations and flagrant violations of the ceasefire. Naturally, when there is such a situation, all the other issues recede into the background.. Azerbaijan cannot give up illusions that force or threat of force can be used as a tool during talks,” Nalbandyan noted, stressing that this kind of policy has not given and will not give Baku any positive results.

Commenting on the view that it is no use continuing the talks amid Azerbaijan’s provocations and inadequate actions, E. Nalbandyan said: “The question is: What is the alternative to negotiations?  Of course, Armenia is in favor of continuing the talks and finding a resolution to the problem through negotiations. The participation of our president in the summit shows this, speaks of our approach, which consists in the fact that Armenia is committed to continue joint efforts with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs towards  a peaceful resolution of the conflict”.

“Unfortunately, the approaches of the sides are not close, they do not coincide. Yet in this case Azerbaijan’s position is not close to Armenia’s approaches, and it also does not coincide with the proposals of the Co-chairs,” Nalbandyan said.