Stepanakert: Preventing the resumption of tripartite negotiations  with the participation of Artsakh, Azerbaijan deliberately tightens  the establishment of lasting peace in the region

ArmInfo.The absence of full-format talks is a derivative of the lack of political will on  the part of the Azerbaijani leadership to achieve a final settlement of the conflict. This February 19, summarizing the activities of the department in 2017, said Artsakh Foreign Minister Masis Mayilian.

He recalled that full negotiations are negotiations of three parties  - Artsakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia, who signed the cease-fire  agreement in May 1994. The Artsakh Minister emphasized that this  format is fixed in the final document of the CSCE / OSCE Budapest  Summit. "Based on this, we believe that efforts should be directed to  the resumption of the trilateral negotiations of  Artsakh-Azerbaijan-Armenia, and not the creation of a new negotiating  architecture." Preventing the resumption of trilateral negotiations  with direct and full participation of Artsakh, refusing to implement  peacekeeping initiatives to strengthen the cessation regime fire,  pursuing a consistent policy to escalate the conflict, Azerbaijan  deliberately drags out the establishment of lasting peace in the  region, "the minister said.  "First of all, I would like to clarify  the terminology. Full-fledged negotiations provide for the  involvement of three parties - Artsakh, Azerbaijan, and Armenia,  which signed the cease-fire agreement in May 1994. It is this format  that is enshrined in the final document of the CSCE / OSCE Budapest  Summit. Accordingly, we believe that efforts should be exerted to  resume the trilateral Artsakh-Azerbaijan-Armenia negotiations, and  not to create new negotiation architecture." Artsakh MFA said. 

It should also be noted that the lack of full-format negotiations is  a derivative of Azerbaijani leadership's lack of political will to  achieve a final settlement of the conflict.  By impeding the  resumption of the full-format negotiations with the direct and full-  fledged participation of Artsakh, refusing to implement the  peacemaking initiatives to strengthen the ceasefire, and pursuing a  consistent policy of escalating the conflict, Azerbaijan deliberately  protracts the establishment of lasting peace in the region.  In this  regard, it is worth recalling that the full-format negotiations were  undermined in due time as a result of similar manipulations by the  Azerbaijani party, which, at the peak of the development of the Great  Political Agreement, insisted on the elaboration of settlement  principles as a basis for continuing the negotiations. Now Azerbaijan  proposes to abandon the discussion of the principles of the conflict  settlement, which it initiated, and to start some kind of structured  negotiations. Such inconsistency of the Azerbaijani authorities  raises no doubts that this initiative, like the previous ones, is  just a trick, resulting from their unwillingness to recognize the  right to self-determination realized by the people of Artsakh as a  basis for achieving a final settlement of the conflict between  Azerbaijan and Karabakh.