“After the Serzh Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting, numerous experts have commented on it and everyone’s opinion coincided at one point that the meeting ended with a positive note for us. In other words, the entire essence of the meeting was that the series of the meetings are restored but the internal information about what questions were discussed there and what was Armenia’s behavior, the reactions indicate that quite positive developments were recorded for the Armenian side. This is also proved by Aliyev’s statement that the meeting was merely formal. We can confirm that there were indeed positive changes,” commented the member of the NA Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Edmon Marukyan, in an interview with Aravot.am, referring to the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement saying that his meeting with Serzh Sargsyan held in Bern was formal.
According to Edmon Marukyan, naturally, it was a meeting with a very negative outcome for them, “This comes to prove his statement that the meeting was formal, nothing essential has been changed, we will again come with our troops to war and take our lands back, etc. He says it for keeping militancy, he cannot say that it was a good meeting because his people will ask him, if it was a good meeting, so many years you have prepared us, you have said we would go to drink tea in Stepanakert under our flag, then why this is not happening as a result of this meeting, why we do not drink tea.” As noted by Edmon Marukyan, the US congressmen’s initiative that innovative systems should be installed for investigation and reveal of the border incidents was also undesirable for Azerbaijan. When estimating this meeting in Bern, Edward Nalbandian highlighted that once again as a result of this meeting we can reaffirm that the approaches of the sides do not coincide to each other.
As Edmon Marukyan said, “It is clear that it did not coincide, if it were, the negotiations would begin. But not coinciding is one thing, but focusing on the direction of international opinions and criticism toward Azerbaijan is another thing. It is clear that the parties do not agree on the conflict settlement at this point. If they had, now, we would have negotiated on the framework document.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
