"I am sure the smell of oil and gas and the taste of caviar turn many people's brains in European structures. Nevertheless, we will embark on the right path, otherwise, if the Azerbaijani president's statements and steps are forgiven, it will mean that something's wrong somewhere," Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at a joint press conference with President of the European Council Donald Tusk in Yerevan.
In the meantime, President Sargsyan urged Tusk and other high-ranking European officials not to equate the parties to the Karabakh conflict, because it encourages Azerbaijan to keep its militarist and aggressive statements. Sargsyan urged them to follow the OSCE Minsk Group's example and to specify who is to blame for the escalation.
Sargsyan added that during his meeting with Tusk the latter stated that the EU fully supports the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs' efforts towards peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. "This means that Azerbaijan's attempts to find a different solution to the conflict are doomed to failure," the President said. He stressed that despite Azerbaijan's attempts to distort the core of the conflict, the right of Artsakh's people to self-determination through a free expression of will is no longer questioned and this has also been fixed in the MG Co-Chairs' statements. "In this light, we are ready to move forward through reasonable concessions," he said.
Donald Tusk, in turn, pointed out that the latest processes in the Karabakh conflict zone (the escalation - editor's note) trigger concerns. He once again urged the conflicting parties to be restrained. He also emphasized that there is no alternative to the peaceful resolution of the conflict.