Serzh Sargsyan: Armenia against unilateral concessions

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia is against unilateral concessions, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated on the eve of June 24 Kazan meeting on Karabakh issue.

“We are for bilateral concessions. Must we make concessions with a state that is prepared to train weapons on us? As I noted during PACE plenary session, intolerance and Armenophobia are prevailing in Azerbaijan, according to the report of European Committee againstRacism and Intolerance. This, however, is not the case in Armenia. We must put and end to intolerance and build a future on mutual trust,” the President stated in an interview with Euronews.

Commenting on his vision of breaking the deadlock, while refusing to negotiate a peace agreement without the right to self-determination for Nagorno Karabakh, with Azerbaijan rejecting the condition, the President noted, “if Azerbaijan does not accept the principle of self-determination, then how can they say that Madrid principles are the foundations on which we must continue the negotiations and find a solution to the problem?”

As the President reminded, the document envisaged observation of the 3 principles: non-use of force, territorial integrity and people’s right to self-determination. “Not only principles backed by Armenian side were written into Madrid document. It seems a bit strange that for years Azerbaijan has negotiated on a document, when it does not even accept one of the basic principles.”