Serzh Sargsyan: Since 2007 nothing other than Madrid Principles has  been negotiated anywhere  

ArmInfo."Today, Armenia represents itself to the world with a distinctive policy - constructive, balanced, principled, and trustworthy diplomacy. Those familiar with our diplomatic style know that Armenia is guided not by the "against" but by the "for" principle," Armenian President Serzh  Sargsyan said in his address at the reception at the Armenian  Ministry of Foreign Affairs held on the occasion of New Year and Holy  Christmas.   

"Armenia's approaches and viewpoints are understandable and  conceivable for the international community thanks to our consistent  and principled foreign policy, thanks to your - those present here -  clear-cut foreign policies. The results of the summits in Vienna in  Saint Petersburg after the Azerbaijani aggression in April prove it.  The Hamburg Declaration of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the  countries - Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group made in the end of this  year, has shown how far from the reality the fabrications of the  Azerbaijani side are with regard to the Nagorno Karabakh problem. At  the same time, the Declaration has shown clearly how coherent are our  approaches with those of the international community. There is no  doubt that it became possible thanks to the consistent efforts of the  Armenian diplomacy," the press office of the Armenian President  quotes Serzh Sargsyan as saying.  

"At this moment, it would be appropriate to note that experts,  politicians or those, who believe they are, from time to time throw  into the air the so called "options" for the resolution of the NK  issue. However, in the reality they are not options but hypotheses. I  state very clearly that until now nobody has been able to present  precisely the option which we have been discussing painstakingly for  years, and it is pretty understandable and conceivable, but when they  are trying to get into the details, they slip up and start to speak  of wishes. Diplomacy is not about wishes. Negotiations are not for  making wishes true. I am not an expert diplomat but negotiations, I  assume, is about the ability to reach compromise. And now, in your  presence I would like to stress once again that since 2007 nothing  other than the Madrid Principles has been negotiated anywhere. Why  don't we, being aware of all details, because we are the negotiators,  tell our public all the details?  There are at least two reasons for  that. You, as experienced negotiators, know very well that getting  ready for negotiations, you will not open up your "toolbox", your  hunches, your tactics or strategy because in the contemporary world  it works like this: you say a word or two in Yerevan and they get to  Baku, Washington, Moscow and Paris with the speed of a lighting and  become public knowledge. This is one. And second, you all know that  during crucial negotiations there works the following principle:  nothing is agreed unless everything is agreed. If each time we return  from the negotiations we tell our people "this sentence, this idea  has been formulated this or that way," two weeks later, when  something gets changed, we would have to start explaining again why  it happened and so on. However, it is not essential, the essential  thing is that starting from year 2007, meaning from the moment when  the Madrid Principles were adopted as the base for the negotiations,  we have been working towards one goal - the final status of Nagorno  Karabakh will be decided by the people of Nagorno Karabakh. We will  not dither on this principle," the President stressed. 

Sargsyan added that Armenian diplomacy has presented to the  international community Azerbaijan's aggression against Artsakh in  April, the gravest violations of the international obligations and  humanitarian law. "The Armenian diplomatic corps together with the  countries of the OSCE Minsk Group continues to work on the  establishment of peace. Armenia is a proponent of peace. We know very  well how precious the peace is. It is no coincidence that today the  pivots of our foreign policy are peaceful resolution of conflicts,  non-use of force, and the prevention of crimes against humanity," he  noted.