No Agreement Reached for Meeting of Presidents, Says Kocharyan

Shavarsh Kocharyan (Photo: Photolure)

YEREVAN (Public Radio of Armenia) – No agreement has been reached regarding the date and place of the meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan.

Kocharyan explained that the content of the meeting will not be favorable to Azerbaijan, but considers that Baku will not be able to avoid the meeting.

The Deputy Foreign Minister said “progress in the negotiations is impossible if there is no trust between the parties.”

Speaking to reporters today, the Deputy Foreign Minister discussed that Azerbaijan’s failure to abide by the ceasefire questions any future agreements that they might commit to.

“Azerbaijan might put its signature under a document, but refuse to implement it, just like we saw in case of the ceasefire agreements,” said Kocharysan.

He said the failure to register process in the negotiations is connected with Azerbaijan’s adoption of a policy of force in response to self-determination, which it sticks to until now.

The Deputy Foreign Minister said the negotiation process should be treated on two layers.

“The first refers to preventing any military actions, which is the mission of the Co-Chairing countries and the second layer is called to ensure progress in the negotiations,” he added,

Kocharyan said the Co-Chairs obviously put the emphasis on trust. “Therefore, when we speak about negotiations, we don’t mean we are going to register concrete progress. Unfortunately, that’s not the case today. Confidence-building is the primary issue today, which means any provocations should be prevented.”

He said the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs are getting more and more targeted as the Co-Chairs often speak about the need to observe the ceasefire regime, install equipment.  This means growing pressure on Azerbaijan not only with regard to the Karabakh conflict, but also the corruption scandal the Azerbaijani government is linked to.

He added that although the country isn’t mentioned in the statement, it is clear who it is addressed to.

He said today Azerbaijan acts out of the rules of the game and it’s obvious that this cannot last long. “It was obvious that Azerbaijan’s corruption process in the Council of Europe will reach the logical end to which it reaches today. Eventually, it deals with three permanent members of the UN Security Council. The number one mission of these members is to prevent war at any corner of the world, but if they are mediators and military operations are taking place in line with this, it is a slap for the three permanent members of the UN Security Council. Azerbaijan understands this quite well and tries to somehow get rid of that format, but it will fail,” continued Kocharyan.

He added that if the incidents in the Artsakh conflict zone have decreased somehow, it is linked with the fact that the Armenian sides are ready to that and have been further supplemented with the necessary equipment.

Commenting on the death of Armenian soldier in Tavush province on October 11 by the Azebaijani gunfire, the deputy minister said, “In general we know that Azerbaijan’s goal is to constantly cause damage. This is their consistent policy that has become more frequent during important meetings.”

Source: Asbarez
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