As long as Azerbaijan continues to be non-constructive, there will be no progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks, Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told journalists on Thursday, when asked to comment on the Paris meeting of the Armenian and Azeri presidents.
He said that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem can be solved only if Nagorno-Karabakh is involved in the talks. "If Azerbaijan actually wanted peace, it would agree to negotiate with Nagorno-Karabakh as was the case in the 1990s when Azeri President Heydar Aliyev signed a document authorizing the Azeri Parliament's Vice Speaker to negotiate with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. And now Azerbaijan is using the talks as a veil for pushing its own interests," Kocharyan said.
To remind, when asked about the Paris meeting on Wednesday Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said: "You can feel a tinge of optimism in my speech. We say that the negotiations were sincere, useful, constructive and interesting for a reason. A step towards rapprochement of the countries' positions was made during the meeting in Paris. Moods have improved in the period from the Sochi to Paris meeting. This is a complicate process, indeed. One- two meetings are not enough to achieve breakthroughs in the negotiations.
It is important that the parties have reaffirmed their commitment to the peaceful resolution of the conflict through negotiations."