YEREVAN, JULY 12, ARMENPRESS. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs once again reaffirm that the settlement of the Artsakh-Azerbaijan conflict is possible exclusively through negotiations, Eduard Sharmazanov- Vice Speaker of Armenia’s Parliament, told reporters on July 12, reports Armenpress.

He said the Armenian side reaffirms its stance according to which it is impossible to ensure progress in negotiations without the implementation of the Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements.

“I have identified three important points over the July 11 meeting results of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov. The Co-Chairs once again reaffirm that the conflict must be settled exclusively though negotiations, secondly, the Armenian side as well reaffirms its stance that it is impossible to reach progress in negotiations without the implementation of the Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements, and third one is that Azerbaijan continues its unconstructive approaches and doesn’t implement the agreements in practice”, Sharmazanov said.

According to him, the Armenian side must continue its tough stance. “The Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan clearly stated in his May 18 speech at the Parliament that the most important is to ensure the safety of the citizens of Artsakh, and secondly, the issue must be solved through the realization of full, free expression of will of the Artsakh citizens”, Sharmazanov said.

Sharmazanov said on the other hand the international community and first of all the Co-Chairing countries must find ways for convincing or pressure to have an impact on Azerbaijan so that it will implement the agreements. Sharmazanov also attached importance to the strict assessment of the Foreign Ministry of Russia, as a Co-Chairing country, over the Azerbaijani discriminative attitude towards Russian citizens of Armenian descent.

“After the April war Azerbaijan wanted to start from a new negotiation point, however, it failed, and the Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements were a failure of Azerbaijan since the Armenian side has always supported installing trust mechanisms, but a year later we still do not have progress”, the Parliament’s Vice Speaker said.