Your trusted source

One of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs has expressed a hope for a meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs in Hamburg in December. Azerbaijan initially gave consent to that meeting, yet their statements remain inconsistent, Armenian FM Edward Nalbandyan stated on Tuesday during the joint press conference with Foreign Minister of Italy Paolo Gentiloni.

Asked what are the expectations of the planned meeting, Nalbandyan said Azerbaijan from one hand announces its readiness to participate in the Minsk Group initiated meetings, on the other hand makes announcements contradicting to the Co-chairs’ approaches.

“The co-chairs have repeatedly stated that the Karabakh conflict may be resolved based on three principles of the international law - the non-use of the threat of force, self-determination of peoples, and territorial integrity. The co-chairs have numerously announced that those principles and the elements based on those principles are indivisible and any attempt to separate out them would result in a stalemate,” Nalbandyan said.

To his words, Baku should decide on whether it wants to continue the negotiations in the format of co-chairmanship. “Otherwise, their participation in those meetings turns into an imitation. One evidence for that was their participation in the Vienna and St. Petersburg meetings, where they have rejected the implementation of the arrangements reached at those meetings and are actively working to disrupt them,” noted the Armenian FM, adding “After the April aggression the efforts of the Co-chairs along with Armenian are aimed at creating favorable conditions to move forward the settlement of the conflict”.

To Nalbandyan’s words, Armenia has never refused from negotiations and meetings, every time giving consent to the framework, suggested by the mediators. “Let me remind you that Azerbaijan was the side that refused from meeting with the co-chairs at all, calling them useless tourists,” Nalbandyan recalled.

The FM next spoke of the Azerbaijani upcoming large-scale military drills with involvement of 60,000 troops and the huge military equipment, assessing that an attempt of escalation.
 
“That is certainly a violation of the Vienna documents, requiring prior notification of military exercises, involving 9,000 or more troops to be given no later than 21 days prior to the beginning of the exercise. Not only did they fail to notify but also initiate a step ahead of the Hamburg meeting which is an escalation of the situation. Furthermore, more ceasefire violations are being recorded both on the frontline and the zone of the conflict in general,” Nalbandyan concluded.