Armenian political scientist: Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting is positive for Armenian side

YEREVAN, MAY 17, ARMENPRESS. Political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan considers positive the meeting between Presidents of Armenian and Azerbaijan in terms of implementing the preconditions issued by the Armenian side for the resumption of negotiations.

He stressed the importance that the Foreign Ministers of the Co-Chairing countries highlighted that the 1994 ceasefire agreement and the 1995 ceasefire strengthening agreement continue to be in force. “You know that Azerbaijan wanted to refuse from that agreement and remove the Nagorno Karabakh, however, we saw that the Foreign Ministers of the Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries stressed the necessity of keeping in force that agreements and maintaining the ceasefire regime”, “Armenpress” reports, political scientist stated.

He stated that based on the results of the meeting we can say that the Co-Chairing countries expressed their willingness to fulfill at least two preconditions put forward by the Armenian side for resuming the negotiations. “The talk is about the guarantees of maintaining the ceasefire regime and the installation of the investigative mechanisms. Now it is important that the US, Russia and France will be consistent with taking concrete measures towards that path in case of which the process will move forward. Generally we can say that the meeting was positive for the Armenian side in terms of diplomatic meaning”, Shahnazaryan stated.

He added that it is very important to follow the Azerbaijani actions which is not the first time that it violated the agreements. “Unfortunately, we saw that last night an NKR soldier was killed which shows that Azerbaijan can ignore the agreements reached in Vienna”, political scientist concluded.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev participated in a meeting initiated by the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair countries on May 16 in Vienna. The meeting was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry and French Secretary of State for European Affairs HarlemDésir. Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov, Ambassadors Igor Popov of Russia, James Warlick of the USA and Pierre Andrieu of France were also present at the meeting. The tense situation resulted by the gross ceasefire violations in early April of 2016 and ways to overcome it were discussed at the meeting.The representatives of the Co-chair countries insisted on the necessity of unconditionally respecting the 1994 ceasefire agreement and the 1995 ceasefire strengthening agreement. An agreement was reached to take measures for creating monitoring mechanisms investigating border incidents, increasing the scope of responsibilities of the team of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and for possible resumption of negotiation process.