Nalbandian: Negotiating with language of blackmail is impossible

ArmInfo. If there are new initiatives to organize a meeting on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, it will be informed about. On March 10, Armenian Foreign Minister  Edward Nalbandian stated this in Yerevan during a joint press  conference with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotsias when answering  the question whether there are any initiatives on the part of the  Russian side to organize a meeting at the level of the Foreign  Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"You know that we do not hide anything from society and openly and  publicly speak about everything.  Azerbaijan always presents  everything in a different desirable light. Today we are talking only  about the visit of mediators to the region. Armenia has never refused  to meet, both at the ministerial level and at a higher level. But  such meetings should be properly prepared and the issue is not only  in the organization.  The Azerbaijani side should be ready for  negotiations, and not imitate them and speak in the language of  blackmail. It is impossible to negotiate in the language of  blackmail, and Bacu has entered a deadlock, trying to justify itself  before its own society, stating that they have similar positions in  the certain issues with the international community. The reality is  completely different", the minister said.

Touching upon the statement of the Russian Foreign Minister following  the meeting with his Azerbaijani colleague in Moscow, due to the fact  that thanks to many years of contacts it was possible to develop a  common understanding of the key issues to be resolved, however, two  or three specific topics that are axial for the final package are  still being discussed, Nalbandian noted that if we compare the  statements of Lavrov and Mamedyarov, then it strikes one's eye how  different they are from each other. He recalled that during the  long-term negotiations, proposals and points on the settlement of the  conflict have been worked out, which can not be separated from each  other, since this is a set of proposals". As for the question of  on  which points did not reach agreement, I will say one thing, this is  the negotiation process and if we now presented points on which we  did not reach agreement, then there would be no sense in the  negotiations.  Our approaches, as I have repeatedly stated, are in  tune with the approaches of the international community and  mediators. It is Azerbaijan that constantly withdraws from these  proposals, not Armenia, and not only in the essence of the  negotiation process, but also on such matters as restoring the  atmosphere of trust, introducing mechanisms for investigating  incidents", resumed the Armenian Foreign Minister.

To note, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after the meeting  with his Azerbaijani colleague Elmar Mammadyarov said that Russia  expects that the Karabakh conflict can be settled. According to him,  the results of long-term contacts show this, after which they managed  to develop a common understanding of key issues to be resolved.  "First of all, it concerns security issues, humanitarian issues,  questions of the return of those areas that are around Karabakh and  are not currently controlled by Azerbaijan, determination of the  status of Nagorno-Karabakh (certainly taking into account the opinion  of those people who live there), coordinating the parameters of the  international peacekeeping forces. For most of these aspects of the  final settlement, we have agreement, but two or three specific topics  that are key to the final package are still being discussed. I will  not dissemble, we are still far from seeing the situation when the  sides will work out a unified approach to these remaining issues. I  repeat, most of the other aspects we consider to be a quick enough  solvable, but a couple of key issues, which we spoke about in detail  today, still require additional efforts", Lavrov said.