“It is clear that what Warlick announced is not new. And now, Edward Nalbandian’s words are in the context of the very Madrid principles, and does not differ from what Warlick said. The Armenian side agrees to it, too. Our authorities are operating within the framework of the Madrid principles. The “Heritage” has announced that the process of the Madrid principles is unacceptable for us,” said interpreted the vice-president of Heritage party Armen Martirosyan, in the conversation with Aravot.am, referring to Edward Nalbandian’s response to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair James Warlick. He reminded, “Let’s not forget Serzh Sargsyan’s famous phrase that Aghdam is not our homeland, hence definite return of liberated territories has been acceptable with our authorities. Of course, it seems that the Armenian side has reservations about only 2 regions that it does not want to return, Kalbajar and Lachin. The RA authorities are implementing their policies based on the issue of maintaining the power. It is clear that they closed the 2008 shameful situation, the existence of 10 victims, at the expense of the Madrid principles and by the Armenian-Turkish protocols. They closed the 2012-2013 shameful elections by the promise of EU Association to mitigate the estimates of the elections. Of course, they deceived with the Association, but the Armenian-Turkish protocols and the Madrid principles could not be evaded, because they have already signed the document. So, Edward Nalbandian has done what was agreed upon by the authorities. Warlick’s words are basically close to what our authorities have said, because Azerbaijan seems does not agree to that version. And with its position, it hopes to grab a bigger bite.” Pursuant to Mr. Martirosyan, we have made a lot of mistakes accepting, first of all, this 1994 “blurry” ceasefire. “We should have reached the point to register the status quo at that moment as a final document. Until now, the authorities never had legitimacy after Artsakh war. The elections were always rigged. And since they had a problem with legitimizing their power in the outer world, the public interest was put on the altar to maintain the power. As a result, we have the Madrid principles”. To our question of whether Armenia can disregard the opinion of Karabakh, since the NKR Foreign Affairs Ministry’s response to the same Warlicks’ recommendations were very solid, Armen Martirosyan replied, “Of course , it cannot disregard. Because Karabakh is a factor, and it is clear that a completely different situation will occur in Armenia. But since they are also from the Karabakh field, they approach their operations from a slightly different side.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
