YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. One shouldn’t make conclusions over the content of the meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the announcements of the Azerbaijani foreign minister, instead they should be guided by the statement issued by the foreign ministers of the Co-chair countries, “Armenpress” reports Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian told the reporters in Hamburg during a briefing.

“All the issues that the Co-chairs plan to raise with the parties are outlined here. The Co-chair countries say they severely condemn use of force or the threat to use force. Who does it refer to? It’s quite clear since we have always been committed to non use of force or the threat to use it. It is Azerbaijan that refrained from making reference to those principles and not only used force and threat to use force, but we can say even committed a crime against peace, since what happened in early April was a large-scale aggression. During that aggression terrible acts of vandalism were committed. The Co-chairs also strictly condemned those acts”, the Armenian top diplomat stressed.

To the remark that the statement does not clarify who are responsible for the crimes, the Minister said that people who are engaged in those issues are well-aware of who the perpetrators are. “The Co-chairs are mediators. We would like the statements to be addressed, of course, it is so, but they have to try to say that same thing in a diplomatic manner, but even in this case it clearly addresses”, Edward Nalbandian said.

Minister Nalbandian recalled that the Co-chairs referred to the issue that the 1994/95 ceasefire agreements must be fully respected. The Minister also brought the example of the attempts by Azerbaijan to put under question the termless trilateral ceasefire agreements of 1994/95 sending letters to New York and Vienna. In response, the Co-chair countries said that those agreements remain in force and have to be respected. “What were the Co-chairs talking about? – the tree principles which Azerbaijan tries to bypass. The President of our Republic has mentioned several times that the tree prominent principles are the basis of the conflict settlement. Azerbaijan not only refuses to make a reference to those principles, but also to the 5 statements made by the Co-chairs on a presidential level. This time the Co-chairs emphasized the elements included in the L'Aquila, Muskoka, Deauville, Los Cabos and Enniskillen statements. Who is this addressed to? This conflict emerged as a result of use of force against the right to self-determination”, the Armenian Foreign Minister said, adding that the Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements must be fully implemented to be able to move forward, something that the Co-chairs also stated.