YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. President of the National Assembly of Artsakh Ashot Ghoulyan has commented on the announcments of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, noting that irrespective of the content of the proposals developed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs and irrespective of their names, be it Lisbon, Key West, Madrid, Kazan or something else, they will be inadmissible for Artsakh if they are to be developed and discussed without the participation of the direct side of the conflict, the Republic of Artsakh, ARMENPRESS reports Ghoulyan wrote on his Facebook page.

‘’Judging from the answers of the Russian FM Sergey Lavrov, one can assume that stubborn efforts are being made for restoing the deadlock option of Artsakh-Azerbaijan conflict settlement, which is the ‘’step-by-step’’ option.

The Foreign Minister of an OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair country, who has deep information on the conflict, could have given more complete comments on the developments. Indeed, all the 4 resolutions of the UNSC were adopted in 1993, during the war. The priority and key demand of those resolutions was the total suspension of military actions, unblocking of communication means and start of negotiations. Did the other side of the conflict, Baku, really implement the main demand of the resolutions? If it had implemented, the war would not have lasted until May, 1994, when the Azerbaijani side was forced to sign Yerevan-Baku-Stepanakert trilateral agreement on ceasefire and the agreement on reinforcing the ceasefire regime signed in February, 1995.

It should be emphasized that the mentioned two agreements are the exclusive agreements signed during the entire process of Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement, which were achieved by trilateral format.

Afterwards, numerous settlement options have been discussed, which have been denied either by Baku or by Stepanakert and remained on paper. I want to draw special attention on the fact that the settlement option denied by Stepanakert (October, 1997) was later named ‘’Step-by-step’’ option. Even if we try to understand the Co-chairs’ consistent efforts to find new ways for settlement, one can merely feel sorry for the fact that those quests took them back to the concept denied 23 years ago.

Irrespective of the content of the proposals developed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs and irrespective of their names, be it Lisbon, Key West, Madrid, Kazan or something else, they will be inadmissible for Artsakh if they are to be developed and discussed without the participation of the direct side of the conflict, the Republic of Artsakh. And this last announcement that the step-by-step option is on the negotiation table once again makes us confident that Artsakh’s participation is mandatory, moreover, it’s mandatory in all stages of the negotiations’’, President of the National Assembly of Artsakh Ashot Ghoulyan wrote.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan