Presidential aide: Armenia plans no new concessions to Azerbaijan

 June 30, 2011 - 16:11 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia has already made all possible concessions in talks with Azerbaijan and does not plans new ones, a presidential aide said.

“The meeting in Kazan proved that the position of the Armenian President on Karabakh issue is firm, and it is senseless to expect unilateral concessions from Armenia,” Garnik Isagulyan told a press conference.

According to Isagulyan, generous concessions of Armenia as a winning side do not find due understanding from Azerbaijani part, which brings forth new demands.

He also stressed that Azerbaijani efforts for gaining new strategic compromise on the part of Armenia through delaying talks are useless.

Among concessions made by Armenia, Isagulyan pointed out non-recognition of Artsakh by Armenia, non-participation of Karabakh people in elections in Armenia, though in Soviet times Armenia and NKAO were actually united in one state, as 11 deputies from Nagorno Karabakh were elected in the Armenian Supreme Council. Another concession is that Artsakh is not involved in negotiations, and its interests are represented by Armenia.

Despite optimistic forecasts and encouragement, the June 24 meeting between the Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents 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 leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan praised the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries for their continuous attention to the problem and once again thanked Russian President for his personal endeavors to bring the positions of the conflicting sides closer.

Later on Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian noted that 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,” he added.