Sargsyan Answered to Aliyev: Karabakh Should Be Outside Azerbaijan

• 10.17.2017, 17:20
• Anna Karapetyan
•  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  NKR

After October 16 Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting in Geneva, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan presented the results of the negotiations in a meeting with the representatives of the Armenian community of Switzerland. He specifically mentioned that there is no clear agreement on political issues but there are agreements on the strengthening of ceasefire.

Both this announcement of the President and the joint statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, clearly indicate that the negotiations contained two parallel components: political settlement and strengthening the ceasefire. In other words, the arrangements reached by Presidents last year in Vienna and St. Petersburg remain on the agenda.

In every possible way Baku is trying to get rid of its commitments and the resumption of the current negotiations it represented as evidence that the issues reached during the previous meetings are in the past. In fact, the results of Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting showed the opposite. And it is logical as the implementation of those agreements, strengthening of ceasefire and building an atmosphere of trust create the necessary environment for the promotion of political dialogue.

Besides, Serzh Sargsyan's speech also contained another important issue, which, in essence, was the answer to Aliyev's previous statement. A few days before the meeting Aliyev once again stated that the problem should be solved exclusively on the principle of territorial integrity and Artsakh should return to Azerbaijan. After the talks, Sargsyan responded to Aliyev, stressing that the only solution for us is that Karabakh be outside Azerbaijan and no Armenian leader will ever adopt another decision. In this way Sargsyan made it clear that Armenia's constructiveness and restraint behavior in the negotiation process should not be misinterpreted by Aliyev clan.

P.S. It is also noteworthy that Sargsyan responded to Aliyev after the talks so that it would not have a destructive effect on the process and not to restrain the atmosphere. The same cannot be said about Aliyev, who on the threshold of the meeting, speaking with absurd statements, equalized the hopes for progress in the negotiations to zero.