Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian meets with OSCE Minks Group Co-chairs in Yerevan and the Permanent Representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office
YEREVAN—The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on Thursday met with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and updated him on their talks in Baku a day earlier and discussed next steps in the ongoing peace talks for the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
On the same day, Azerbaijani forces violated the ceasefire agreement, as a result of which 20-year-old Haik Kalantaryan was killed on the border of Artsakh and Azerbaijan.
The Co-Chairs Igor Popov of Russia, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States were joined by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, to discuss with Armenia’s top diplomat issues related to the agreement on the expansion of Kasprzyk’s capacities, reached in January at a meeting between Nalbandian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov in Krakow, Poland.
Nalbandian drew the attention of the Co-Chairs to the fact that, unlike the Co-Chairs and Armenia, Baku has not made any statement thus far about its willingness to implement the principles outlined in the agreement.
“Baku has a strange memory: being entangled in the web of its own fabricated falsifications, it forgets the agreements reached one month before and prior to that, with regards to which the Co-Chairs have made numerous statements, while at the same time it recalls with twisted interpretations the twenty-five years old documents, to which the Co-Chairs have not even referred to, for obvious reasons,’’ Nalbandian said to the visiting diplomats.
Informing the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs about the killing of an Armenian soldier as a result of blatant violation of the ceasefire by Azerbaijani on the Artsakh-Azerbaijan border, Nalbandian underlined that even the presence of the Co-Chairs in the region does not restrain Baku from provocative actions: thus Azerbaijan demonstrates its disrespect towards the Co-Chair countries.
Referring to Baku’s comments that Azerbaijan is allegedly interested in the rapid resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Nalbandian noted that words should be supported by the deeds, the agreements reached at Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva summits should be implemented and the Co-Chairs’ proposals on the conflict settlement should be accepted as the basis for negotiations and the process should move forward on this foundation.
