RPA: Azerbaijan leads Karabakh process to deadlock

PanARMENIAN.Net - The presidential meeting in Kazan proved that Azerbaijan, completely ignoring the statements by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs and the settlement logic, is leading the talks towards a deadlock, said a spokesman for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia.

“It’s not a novelty that Azerbaijan just imitates talks,” Eduard Sharmazanov told a news conference in Yerevan. “Settlement should be based on compromise. However, Armenia will never agree to unilateral concessions,” he said, noting that “anyway, continuation of talks is better than nothing.”

Sharmazanov once against stressed the necessity of engaging Nagorno Karabakh representatives in the negotiation process. “All have already understood that Artsakh is an independent state,” he said.

The June 24 meeting between the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, which was eyed as an opportunity to fix considerable progress on the way to the conflict resolution, ended in a statement saying that the heads of state “noted the reaching of mutual understanding on a number of questions, whose resolution helps create conditions to approve the basic principles."

“The June 24 meeting was not a breakthrough, as Azerbaijan proved unready to accept the final version of the basic principles suggested by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs. Instead, the Azerbaijani leader attempted to impose 10 new proposals, thus precluding the possibility of any agreement on the issue,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said to explain why no agreement was reached.