The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs will visit Armenia, Azerbaijan and Artsakh in the coming days, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told a press conference today.
Speaking about the agreement on the expansion of the mission of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the Minister said “Armenia has always been a proponent of it.
“It is the only mission of an international community in the conflict zone and if the intensity of the monitoring increases, it will contribute to the mitigation of tensions and help observe the ceasefire agreements reached in 1994 and 1995,” Minister Nalbandian noted.
He reminded that an agreement on expanding the monitoring mission was reached in Vienna, but was not implemented because Baku created obstacles.
“In Krakow we agreed in principle to make one step forward to add seven more people to Andrzey Kasprzyk’s team. Both Armenia and Minsk Group Co-Chairs announced this in respective statements, while Azerbaijan keep silent,” he added.
As for the creation of an investigation mechanism, Minister Nalbandian said the issue remains on the agenda. He hopes such mechanism will be created in the future, because it can be an important tool not only in the sense of monitoring of incidents, but also for reducing tensions.
The Foreign Minister urged not to look for logic in the statements of Azerbaijani officials, even if they use the work “logic.”
The Minister said that according to Azerbaijani logic, they reach agreement, and step back, turn down the proposals of the Co-Chairs, agree to mitigate tensions and resort to new provocations.
According to Edward Nalbandian, Azerbaijan has a “unique” logic, which does not match that of the international community. .
Minister Nalbandian also stated that the Co-Chairs have declared on many occasions that the Karabakh conflict should be solved on the basis of principles and norms proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs as a “package.” Attempts to single out any of the principles will make it impossible to solve the issue, he said.
Minister Nalbandian added, however, that that the “package solution” implies a step-by-step implementation.
