We learned from the Twitter page of the US Embassy to Armenia that the OSCE Minsk Group US Co-Chair James Warlick has met with the NA “Heritage” faction MP Tevan Poghosyan, RPA faction MP Samvel Farmanyan and parliamentarian Edmon Marukyan. In the interview with Aravot.am, Mr. Poghosyan shared some information about the meeting. In particular, he said that they had discussed common approaches on various projects related to the peace process, and the Armenian side presented some views. According to Tevan Poghosyan, “they managed to deliver our views.”
We were curious about the reaction of the co-chair, and whether he had also taken a neutral posture like the OSCE Chairman, Mr. Poghosyan replied, “They were trying to make sure that both we and they would ask questions. He was displaying diplomatic approaches. He also realized that the other side has big problems, and they were also trying to draw open statement problems about the closure of the same OSCE office. Particularly in the sense that if there would no democracy in Azerbaijan, the conflict would be difficult to resolve at all.” The meeting discussed issues related to anti-Armenianism and violation of human rights. For instance, the question was raised that if they must cooperate with the representatives of the Azerbaijani side, who after returning to Azerbaijan are going to have problems and would try not to go back to Azerbaijan, then its effectiveness is none. During the meeting with James Warlick, Azerbaijan’s offer to expand the OSCE co-chairs’ staff was not discussed at all as he does not see the need for it at all, but vice versa, in that case, the negotiation process would get more confused.
In response to our question about how James Warlick assesses the current phase of the conflict settlement, as there are opinion voiced that it has entered into an impasse, Mr. Poghosyan said, “If there are no perceptions, it is natural that everything would go to an impasse, but we should always try to find ways out. We need to be able to display a creative approach for the solution of any conflict.” Tevan Poghosyan informed that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs are working on organizing a meeting with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to Tevan Poghosyan, if they manage to organize the meeting, it would be fin, and if they fail to organize it, that’s ok, because Armenia’s main task in the current stage of negotiations is to bring Nagorno-Karabakh to the negotiating table, if we want to have a progress.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
