YEREVAN, JANUARY 29, ARMENPRESS. Armenia has not put forward preconditions in the settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, foreign minister Edward Nalbandian said during an annual press conference in response to Armenpress question, commenting on the claim in the Azerbaijani foreign ministry’s annual report according to which Armenia has put forward preconditions to continue the negotiation process and Armenia was forced to return to the negotiation table.

“Maybe they come from the fact that the paper doesn’t blush with shame, so they write what they want”, the minister said. He stated that the Azerbaijani side pretends that the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg were preconditions by the Armenian side. Even after Vienna they said that no agreement was reached: these are the imagination of the Co-Chair countries.

Nalbandian reminded that after the Krakow meeting the Co-Chairs announced that the ministers reached a principled agreement on expanding the capacities of Kasprzyk’s team. “It turns out that either there were no preconditions, and Azerbaijan creates new versions, or if there were preconditions, Azerbaijan itself had to come to negotiations and continue them over preconditions.

There have been no preconditions from Armenia. It’s at least not serious to present the agreements reached during the summits as a precondition. Azerbaijan just after every meeting tries to step back from the agreements that are being reached during the summits and the meetings at the ministers level. In December 2017, during the OSCE Ministerial Council in Vienna, I mentioned the 9 obstacles that hinder to move forward the conflict settlement due to Azerbaijan. In these 9 points I clearly stated the fact that the country steps back from the agreements reached. It’s important for the agreements to be respected and implemented. There is no alternative to the negotiations. We will continue the efforts together with the Co-Chairs aimed at settling the conflict exclusively by peaceful means”, Nalbandian said.