President Sargsyan says Azerbaijan’s maximalist expectations hinder NK conflict settlement

Azerbaijan’s maximalist and unrealistic expectations from the outcome of the negotiations is an obstacle to the negotiations over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at PACE, in response to the question of one of the MPs.

“If the international community can help Azerbaijan to get rid of illusions and come to a realistic field, I think we will achieve great success in a short period of time”, the President said.

He added that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict hinders the development of the peoples of the conflicting sides, takes human lives, great material resources. “Really there is a need for this conflict to be solved. The fact that the agreements reached are not being implemented also hinders the negotiation process. In 2016 Azerbaijan launched large-scale military operations. After that we had meetings in Vienna, St. Petersburg and then in Geneva. During these meetings we reached an agreement that the best way to continue the negotiations is to create some trust elements. In this regard we made a decision to create an international investigative mechanism for ceasefire violations, expand the powers and set of tools of the personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and reduce tension”, the Armenian President said.

He stated that this didn’t happen since immediately after these meetings the Azerbaijan high-ranking officials announced that this is not their statement, these are the statements of the Co-Chairs, and that the Nagorno Karabakh issue is Azerbaijan’s internal affair. “In such circumstances, of course, it’s unrealistic to expect a quick settlement or intensive progress of negotiations”, President Serzh Sargsyan said.