Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan stipulates the meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan scheduled for June 12 in Washington with the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Baku. He said this in a conversation with journalists in the parliament today. On June 12, another meeting of the RA and Azerbaijan foreign ministers was scheduled in Washington.
However, the other day, the Armenian Foreign Ministry announced that the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers scheduled in Washington was postponed at the request of Azerbaijan. Continuing the topic of regulating the relations between the two countries, in the context of the postponed meeting, the Speaker of the National Assembly expressed his opinion that Armenia and Azerbaijan have different perceptions of the issues under discussion. Often, neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan has any tendency towards even the most simple thing, but at some point, the given issue may be interpreted differently by someone. “You and our opposition often interpret all this differently and find dangers. Now, both our side and the Azerbaijani side are doing everything in order not to leave room for other opinions and interpretations, because in the statement of November 9, we often come across such things that the Azerbaijani side tries to interpret differently, the Armenian side – differently, but the reality is one.”
To the question of whether Azerbaijan can toughen its position after Erdogan visits Baku, Alen Simonyan answered that the toughening of Azerbaijan’s position could be conditioned only by what the Armenian side has to say in cooperation with international partners.
“For example, during the conversation about the “corridor,” the Armenian side showed its will and said until the end that such a thing would not happen. Although some tried to bargain and say that Mr. Pashinyan promised something, it is obvious that the Russian president spoke about it. We also see that it has gone out of Azeri rhetoric, or they are trying to say they meant something else. You can apply all this to the negotiation process in the same way. There can be no coercion for one simple reason. RA government is elected; if we were not elected, there could be coercion. Today, Armenia is making great strides in the level of democracy. From now on, the world perceives all this as an attack on democracy. We all have our mistakes, and everything is not ideal, but the government’s will to solve the existing problems is obvious.” Alen Simonyan answered the question of one of the journalists whether it is fundamental for Armenia that the roads be controlled by the Armenian side when the roads are unblocked. “What are we talking about? Armenia has a sovereign territory where RA laws apply. It cannot be interpreted otherwise.”
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Nelly GRIGORYAN
