The minister of foreign affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandyan spoke about the current stage of the Karabakh settlement process and the meeting in Geneva at the fourth European Armenian Conference. He noted that it was possible to adopt a joint statement for the first time in the past four years. At the same time, he mentioned that Baku backtracks from its commitments on numerous occasions, including the commitment made at the meeting in Vienna. Nalbandyan spoke about Armenia’s readiness to start intensive negotiations, noting, however, that “if Baku abides to the calls of the Co-Chairs to strictly respect the ceasefire, implement previously reached agreements, reiterate its adherence to the principles of the conflict resolution proposed by the Co-Chairs and constructively engage in the negotiations”. In fact, Nalbandyan repeated the Armenian “preconditions”, “ascribing” those to the co-chairs. These conditions of Armenia and the co-chairs match despite Serzh Sargsyan’s statement made a year ago that the Armenian side says those are the conditions of the co-chairs, not of Armenia. What matters is Armenia insists on the conditions and otherwise not to go to the negotiations. Otherwise, Azerbaijan’s “right to territories and right to war” is restored, and Baku avoids the deadlock where it has appeared in the result of the April war. Armenia’s recent behavior ahead of and after the meeting in Geneva caused such suspicions. Concerns were expressed that Armenia backtracks from its demands and returns to the unfavorable pre-April political-military and diplomatic situation. Does Nalbandyan’s speech cover thes...
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