Today Andres Herkel, the chairman of the PACE Monitoring Committee, asked Eduard Nalbandyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, during the meeting of the PACE Standing Committee, which was held within the framework of Armenia’s presidency in the Committee of Ministers, whether the Republic of Armenia was ready to make concessions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. www.aravot.am inquired during a conversation with Levon Zurabyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, whether the fact that the PACE delegates raised the issue of Armenia’s making concessions in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue was the result of an error made in Armenia’s foreign policy, or there was a different problem. Mr. Zurabyan replied: “I wouldn’t think that this was some specific mistake made by the Armenian side. It is just that since the Republic of Armenia has taken over the presidency of the PACE Committee of Ministers, this is an opportunity for the members of the Standing Committee to ask the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs what concessions the Republic of Armenia is ready to make.” L. Zurabyan thinks the problem is in a different domain and goes into detail: “Because of the incompetent diplomacy of the Republic of Armenia since 1998, the perception of the conflict’s format by the international community has evolved. Before that, the conflict had been perceived as a conflict between the right of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) to self-determination and Azerbaijan’s longing for territorial integrity, whereas after the Republic of Armenia agreed to change the format of negotiations, putting aside the fact that the NKR had been recognized by the OSCE as a negotiating and conflicting party, the perception of the conflict’s format by the international community has changed. It began to be perceived as a territorial dispute between the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan. This was the main strategic mistake that the government of the Republic of Armenia made after 1998; we are suffering from its consequences now.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
