The statement made by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that “It is impossible to maintain the status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for long” reminded RA NA RPA faction MP Khosrov Harutyunyan about his earlier statement. “It is time for the negotiation process, in other words, the conditions created over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are favorable to report results in the negotiation process, he has expressed this idea prior to leaving to the region in the airport in Berlin. I do not think that Steinmeier’s opinion was formed after the talks with his counterpart in Armenia,” – said the MP.
As mentioned by Mr. Harutyunyan, as long as there are no irreversible legal and political guarantees ensuring the peaceful nature of the talks, addressing the original process of talks becomes meaningless, “This was also mentioned by the President of Armenia in the interview with the German media, and it is objective, you cannot negotiate when you know that the next day you are going to be at war. First of all, it is important to create guarantees that will guarantee the peaceful nature of the negotiations. This caused the fact that Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that there are questions under the reached agreements that require simultaneously to be silent for not to hamper the fragile achievements reached in the negotiation process. In particular, the expansion of Kasprzyk’s responsibilities, which Steinmeier also spoke about. I think that the OSCE Minsk Group Chairperson-in-Office is trying to extort the maximum from the parties during his tenure in office, or to contribute the maximum in introducing a substantive breakthrough in the negotiation process, I am not sure that it will work but I would love to be so. However, it is natural that it cannot be at the expense of the national security of Artsakh people.” By the interpretation of the NA MP, Maria Zakharova had sharply responded to Baku’s statement that allegedly an agreement was reached in St. Petersburg to solve the problem by phases, because “On the one hand, the maintenance of the ceasefire in the contact line is so important, on the other hand, so variable that any careless phrase can leave an impact on it, talking here about introducing a substantive breakthrough in negotiations, I consider it a little optimistic.”
As for the meeting with the refugees in Azerbaijan by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who traveled to Baku from Armenia, which the Azerbaijani media reported, the NA MP said, “Perhaps, they mean the local leadership of Shushi. Azerbaijan is disseminating so much disinformation that sometimes we cannot understand which is right and which has nothing to do with the reality. Perhaps, he has met with the former mayor of Shushi, whom I know very well and had a chance to meet with him several times, he is a man with a gold tooth in a row and lives in Baku, it is possible that during one of the meetings with Steinmeier, roughly speaking, they made him feel uncomfortable. But the point that he had specifically met with the Mayor of Shushi, I think it less likely. During these meetings, Azerbaijanis could have said, “here is the former mayor of Shushi,” and this was made a show, I do not think that a such a thing could be envisaged during the protocol meetings and Steinmeier had agreed. And if there were a preliminary agreement with Steinmeier here, at least, in Yerevan, it would be a meeting with the NKR authorities.” Note that as reported by APA, during the meeting with Steinmeier and refugees, Azerbaijani side had suggested organizing the “meeting of the two communities.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
