“Surely, there is a connection. In general, Azerbaijan seems is not interested in achieving results in the negotiations. The Armenian side is not interested, too”,- so answered Vladimir Karapetyan, responsible for ANC foreign relations, to the question of Aravot.am of whether it is possible to view the latest diversion attacks at the Nagorno-Karabakh-Azerbaijan border in the context of the forthcoming meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Continuing the theme, he said, “Serzh Sargsyan has lost confidence after last March when he was talking that we will not enter the Customs Union, but abruptly changed his position. There is a kind of unbelief in what some ups and downs, and changes Armenian position will have. In this situation, we are skeptical about the outcome of the meeting.”
Mr. Karapetyan thinks that the negotiations held under this background can not produce positive result. He notes, “I think the Armenian side was to be interested and do everything for such provocations deserve the international community’s assessment, which we do not see. This reflects a decline of the prestige that Armenia has in the international arena. Azerbaijan is also interested in protracting this situation. This enables Aliyev to be consolidated inside, speculating no peace, no-war situation, as they claim in their campaign speeches.” Stepan Safaryan, “Heritage” party general secretary, considers the border incident as a provocation and continues, “Provocation was not only related to Azeri calendar, but closely related to the upcoming ministerial meeting. Azerbaijan always before and after such meetings when it has nothing to answer is trying to provoke. On the one hand, it escalates the situation, on the other hand, prompts Minsk Group co-chair countries and compels giving a higher priority to Karabakh issue, because the world’s attention is not focused on the events in Ukraine and so on. Azerbaijan makes clear that the conflict is not frozen and dangerous developments will happen.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
