Maybe the Impression, that Russia Intends to Take the Leading Position in NK Settlement, isn’t Accidental: Shavarsh Kocharyan

“What was agreed in Vienna, is of crucial importance, without it it’s impossible to touch upon any progress in negotiations,” Shavarsh Kocharyan, RA Deputy Foreign Minister, told reporters today at the National Assembly, touching upon Ilham Aliyev-Serzh Sargsyan meeting to be held in Russia on June 20.

In his words, this meeting is to some extent an examination for Azerbaijan, “Did it agree, not being able to resist pressure and proposals of those three states, and now it’ll attempt to fail that agreement, or not?”

To the observation that, in fact, Russia is holding a leading position around NK issue settlement, the Deputy Minister replied, that it’s difficult to say, “During all this negotiation process one of the Co-chairs was regularly assuming a leading position, it used to be France, then the USA, Russia used to be quite active. Currently, not accidental is the impression that Russia intends to take a leading position, however, until now these steps have been agreed between all the countries.”

Touching upon the statement by Sergey Shoygu, RF Defense Minister, that Russia will continue selling armaments to Azerbaijan, Kocharyan stated that we need to rely on ourselves regarding security protection, “Cooperation with different states and international organizations contributes neutralization of some threats and our cooperation with Russia is in this context, and nothing more. We need to consider, that every state acts out of its own interests.”

To the question, whether interests of Armenia and Russia don’t coincide in this context, the Deputy Minister replied, “We perfectly know our interests, and Russia knows its interests, and we need to realize that edges are where they intersect. People, who had great expectations from Russia, and they weren’t justified, they shouldn’t make Russia our enemy.”

Asked whether any document would be signed during the meeting, Kocharyan said there is only one document for the time being, which was accepted as ground for negotiations: it’s the Madrid document.

By Ani Keshishyan