news.am, Armenia
Nov 21 2009

Arman Melikyan: Aliyev’s bellicose statements attempt to pressure Armenia

15:07 / 11/21/2009`Ilham Aliyev’s bellicose statements on the
threshold of his meeting with Serzh Sargsyan are a mere attempt to
exert pressure on Armenia. This means that Azerbaijan is concerned
over something. It may be the Armenia-Turkey normalization process,’
Armn Melikyan, the ex-foreign minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic (NKR) told NEWS.am.

On the other hand, he believes that the meeting is a necessity, and
the Armenian side must plainly state its hard line. `I have repeatedly
stated that the negotiation process took an illogical course, which
has never contributed to the settlement of the conflict. The parties’
positions remain incompatible. Any appreciable results are difficult
to achieve unless the logic of the process changes,’ Melikyan said.

He also pointed out that the Madrid principles are complicating the
process, as they contain `unfeasible provisions and lack the potential
for settling the conflict.’ `A realistic view of the issue should be
taken: the problem to be discussed must cover the period from the
February 1988 ethnic cleansing, rather than from the military
operations, up to now,’ Melikyan said.

`Since Soviet times Azerbaijan has not changed its policy. Both then
and now that country tries to resolve its problems with Armenia by
force,’ he said.