ARF Dashnaktsutyun concerned over statement of Presidents of OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chair countries

PanARMENIAN.Net - Head of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun parliamentary group Vahan Hovhannisyan said that it is strange that the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chair countries have not referred to the recent attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces on NKR in their recent statement.

They also should have stated about the problem of persistent warlike rhetoric of Azerbaijan, Vahan Hovhannisyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

According to him, the statement calls on surrender of territories surrounding NKR to Azerbaijan. “In other words, the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chair countries actually force Armenia to make unacceptable concessions in return for a vague promise of status of Nagorno Karabakh. Besides, the statement’s wording does not clearly define the will of which population of Karabakh should determine the status of Nagorno Karabakh,” noted Hovhannisyan.

Hovhannisyan noted that the original text of the statement labels the territories surrounding NKR as “occupied.” Thus, he does not understand the enthusiasm of the Armenian Foreign Ministry with respect to the statement.

“Dashnaktsutyun is concerned over the statement of the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chair countries,” Hovhannisyan said, but refrained from commenting on further steps of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun with respect to it.

Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, and Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic issued a joint statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during G8 Summit.

The statement reads: “We, the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group's Co-Chair countries, France, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America, reaffirm our commitment to support the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan as they finalize the Basic Principles for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We welcome as a significant step the recognition by both sides that a lasting settlement must be based upon the Helsinki Principles and the elements that we proposed in connection with our statement at the L’Aquila Summit of the Eight on July 10, 2009, relating to: the return of the occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh guaranteeing security and self-governance, a corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh; final status of Nagorno-Karabakh to be determined in the future by a legally-binding expression of will, the right of all internally-displaced persons and refugees to return, and international security guarantees, including a peacekeeping operation.”