Armenian FM: typical of Baku to backtrack on agreements reached

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia highly appreciates the efforts of the heads of the OSCE Minsk group Co-Chair states, aimed at the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, RA Foreign Minister said.

“Latest statement adopted in Los Cabos in June by Presidents Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama and Francois Hollande, is the fourth one made by the heads of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Countries on the Karabakh issue. It is clear who the key messages are addressed to. Armenia is unanimous with the Co-Chair countries in achieving exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict. We have repeatedly urged to respect the ceasefire agreement of May 1994 and to abstain from hostile rhetoric, which fosters feelings of enmity and increases tension,” Edward Nalbandian said at Dublin-hosted OSCE ministerial council meeting.

“As the United States, Russia and France, we also regret that in spite of the call in the joint statement of Deauville of May 2011 breakthrough was not achieved at the Kazan Summit in June 2011, and it was because of Azerbaijan’s non-constructive position.

While Armenia values the three Co-Chairs’ efforts for the continuation of the negotiating process and preservation of peace, we witness continuous Azerbaijani campaign against the Minsk Group Co-Chairs which have the mandate of OSCE as the only negotiating format for the settlement of Karabakh issue. The Azerbaijani officials are trying to take the negotiation process out of this format, to replace the mediators, to denigrate Co-Chairs’ efforts to find a negotiated solution. The Azerbaijani side is also continuously assaulting the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, in spite of his and his team’s efforts not to allow the escalation of the situation on the ground.

It has become habitual for Azerbaijan to backtrack even on agreements to which it had previously consented to. Despite the agreement on the creation of a mechanism to investigate the ceasefire violations, as you know, Azerbaijan did everything to prevent its creation, even threatening to veto the entire OSCE budget.

This was the case again after the Sochi Summit of January of this year. Despite the reached agreement to accelerate accord on the Basic Principles for a Settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, confirmed by Los Cabos Statement, Azerbaijan by its maximalist approaches is seeking one sided advantage in the negotiating process and is doing everything possible to neglect, even to reject this agreement.

Regardless of Azerbaijan’s destructive stance, Armenia will continue its efforts towards the settlement of Karabakh problem exclusively through peaceful means and on the basis of the purposes, principles and norms reflected in the UN Charter and the provisions of L’Aquila, Muskoka, Deauville and Los Cabos statements of the three Co-Chair countries’ Presidents,” he said.