Armenian MP: Armenian side needs stable and guaranteed ceasefire for restarting negotiations

YEREVAN, MAY 17, ARMENPRESS. Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Artak Zakaryan says the Armenian side for restarting the negotiations over the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be convinced that there will be stable and guaranteed ceasefire in the Karabakh-Azerbaijani line of contact.

“This is the number one issue and we have to be consistent with it. Without the full implementation of that issue, without the full strengthening of that conditions it is early to speak about the negotiations since every agreement can be violated. If we do not have trust mechanisms in the contact line, if we do not have guarantees for the complete maintenance of the ceasefire, the mechanisms of the implementation of agreements reached during the negotiations cannot be provided”, “Armenpress” reports, MP said.

Referring to the meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Vienna, Artak Zakatyan says it is very important that Azerbaijan agreed upon the installation of investigative mechanisms in the contact line which it always rejected. “We can assume from the statements after the Vienna meeting that Azerbaijan agreed on the proposal of installing investigative mechanisms. However, accepting it and implementing them are different things. We now should be convinced that these mechanisms are being implemented, and the contact line is under the maintenance of the ceasefire regime”, Zakaryan said.

According to him, in this difficult situation after the April four-day war the meeting in Vienna gives us hope that the trust mechanisms will be installed which will enable to control all cases of ceasefire violations. This can be a deterrent mechanism for Azerbaijan to mitigate and refuse from further aggressions and the bordering tension.

MP stated that the negotiations will not have final results without the NKR participation. “It is clear that the Nagorno Karabakh will take part in the important stage of the negotiations, and the important stage, I think, is the completion of agreements and the preparation of the final document. The Armenian side announced many times that the best achievements and agreements can be reached, however, as long as Stepanakert will not give its final approval, Armenia cannot implement the agreements”, Zakaryan 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, Pierre Andrieu of France and theOSCE Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzykwere 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.