Armenia to continue seeking ways for advancement of NK conflict settlement talks together with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs – Nalbandian

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting on January 17 in Krakow with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov, Stephane Viconti and Andrew Schofer, as well as Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.

The foreign ministry told ARMENPRESS that during the meeting Nalbandian thanked the Co-Chairs for the initiative of organizing a meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs, and stressed that as always the Armenian side is participating in all meetings with a constructive mood.

The minister emphasized that Armenia, together with the co-chairing countries, will continue to search for ways to create necessary conditions for advancing the negotiations in the direction of implementing the Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva summit agreements and the proposals of the co-chairs, which namely concern de-escalating the tension in the conflict zone, the steady maintenance of the 1994-1995 trilateral ceasefire agreement, expanding the capacity of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office monitoring and creation of ceasefire violation investigative mechanisms.

Nalbandian mentioned that if Baku were to follow the urges of the co-chairs on strictly respecting the ceasefire, and to implement previously reached agreements, get involved in the negotiations process constructively, re-affirm its commitment to the principles of settlement of the conflict proposed by the co-chairs, then it will be possible to pave the way for advancing the peace process.

“Baku often speaks as if it is interested that the status quo gets changed. It is obvious that the practical way of reaching this is the implementation of the abovementioned itself. For many years the Co-Chairs are announcing that their proposed principles and elements, with the goal of a package resolution through phased implementation are one whole, and attempts to give preference to only one of those will make the settlement impossible. The sooner Baku realizes this reality, the sooner it will be possible to put the settlement process into a practical manner”, Nalbandian said.

The Armenian FM also stressed that the recent announcements of Azerbaijani officials about the preservation of cultural heritage can only cause uncertainty, because it is Azerbaijan itself that for many years is consistently destroying Armenian monuments, at the same time denying the implementation of international fact finding missions in Jugha and other locations.

At the initiative of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs are expected to meet on January 18 in Krakow.