Armenian President doesn’t believe international community tired of Karabakh issue

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan commented on Deauville statement of the presidents of the United States, France and Russia who said the situation in Karabakh was no longer acceptable, which might mean that international mediators are getting tired of the deadlock.

In an interview with Euronews, President Sargyan said, “I don’t think the international community is tired of Karabakh issue. The international community has called on Armenia, Karabakh and Azerbaijan to give a definitive answer on whether or not we are ready to move towards a solution based on principled voiced. We have been told to answer “yes” or “no” without delay. This is the question we have to answer in Kazan.”

Commenting on the possibility of progress in Kazan, considering that to Armenia the self-determination for Nagorno Karabakh is a prerequisite to negotiate a deal, while Azerbaijan rejects this condition, the President noted, “In that case Azerbaijan should declare that it is against one or two of the basic principles. Or else, the international community must announce that it does not recognise the right to self-determination.

The second scenario will mean the progress of recent decades will be lost. Because if the right to self-determination is not feasible, how was it possible to create ten new states based on that right. I might cite Kosovo as an example.

I also recall that there was another region of Azerbaijan populated by Armenians, the autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan, but there are no longer any Armenians living there, as the region was cleansed of Armenians in Soviet epoch.”

The Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia – Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliyev and Dmitry Medvedev - are slated to meet on June 25 in the Russian city of Kazan, the next in a series of trilateral meetings on the Karabakh conflict settlement.

There are certain expectations with respect to the meeting, taking into consideration the Deauville statement adopted by the leaders of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries, who said “the time has arrived for all the sides to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to take a decisive step towards a peaceful settlement. Further delay [in the settlement] would only call into question the commitment of the sides to reach an agreement.”