No agreement has been reached on the date and place of the meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenian Deputy Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan says.
According to him, the content of the meeting will not be favorable to Azerbaijan, but considers that Baku will not be able to avoid the meeting.
The Deputy Foreign Minister said “progress in the negotiations is impossible if there is no trust between the parties.”
Speaking to reporters today, the Deputy Foreign Minister reminded about Azerbaijan’s commitments undertaken under the trilateral agreements on ceasefire and added that the failure to observe the international commitments questions any future agreement.
“Azerbaijan might put its signature under a document, but refuse to implement it, just like we saw in case of the ceasefire agreements,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said.
He said the failure to register process in the negotiations is connected with Azerbaijan’s adoption of a policy of force in response to self-determination, which it sticks to until now.
The Deputy Foreign Minister said the negotiation process should be treated on two layers. “The first refers to preventing the resumption of military actions, which is the mission of the Co-Chairing countries. The second layer is called to ensure progress in the negotiations. The two are tightly linked,” he said.
Shavarsh Kocharyan said the Co-Chairs obviously put the emphasis on an atmosphere of trust. “Therefore, when we speak about negotiations, we don’t mean we are going to register concrete progress. Unfortunately, that’s not the case today. Confidence-building is the primary issue today, which means any provocations should be prevented.”
He said the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs are getting more and more targeted, the Co-Chairs often speak about the need to observe the ceasefire regime, install equipment. This means growing pressure on Azerbaijan not only with regard to the Karabakh conflict, but also the corruption scandal the Azerbaijani government is linked to.
