Karabakh involvement to promote effective peace talks: official

PanARMENIAN.Net - Peace talks for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict can't be effective without the republic's involvement in all the stages of negotiations, Artsakh President’s spokesman David Babayan said, commenting on a Twitter post of the U.S. Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.

As Ambassador James Warlick said in his Twitter post February 13, "Greek and Turkish Cypriots announced they will have full-fledged negotiations on a settlement. Why can't this happen for Nagorno Karabakh?"

The NKR foreign ministry replied to the post as follows "We agree that it's high time for restoration of full-fledged negotiations with direct participation of Nagorno Karabakh."

Babayan further stressed the importance of the OSCE MG U.S. Ch-chair's message, adding that all the parties will benefit from Karabakh's involvement in the negotiations.

According to Babayan, to achieve serious results, the talks should be held in the format approved at Budapest summit, to include Armenia, NKR and Azerbaijan.

Azeri foreign ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev, in turn, commented on Warlick’s post, noting “this is why we hold talks with Yerevan on resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and signing of comprehensive peace agreement,” News.az reported.

Abdullayev spoke in favor of full-fledged negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan under the OSCE Minsk Group mediation. “Such full-fledged talks should subsequently lead to a comprehensive agreement that Azerbaijan talks about,” he said.

Chief of political analysis and information department at Azerbaijani presidential administration Elnur Aslanov also commented on Warlick’s recent note on Twitter.

On his Twitter page Aslanov pointed out that the U.S. co-chair needs to “further clarify his position.”

“Unfortunately, some unfinished phrases that require further clarification are used [by some forces] to mislead the public opinion,” Aslanov said it in his Twitter microblog.