EDWARD NALBANDIAN: AZERBAIJAN KEEPS ON DISTORTING NOT ONLY THE REASONS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE CONFLICT BUT ALSO CONTENT OF THE CURRENT NEGOTIATIONS

ArmInfo
2010-05-12 14:13:00

ArmInfo. Azerbaijan keeps on distorting not only the reasons
and consequences of the conflict but also content of the current
negotiations using every opportunity to come out with threats of
force at all levels, said Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
in his speech at the 120th Session of the Committee of Ministers in
Strasbourg on May 12.

He recalled that the statement on Karabakh adopted in late 2009 by
the OSCE Foreign Ministers in Athens highlights inadmissibility of
use or threat of force, the peoples’ right to self-determination and
territorial integrity as the key principles of settling the conflict.

Minister Nalbandian said that the Madrid Principles suggested by the
OSCE Minsk Group in 2007 are based on the same principles. Edward
Nalbandian said that the Azerbaijani party had denied even the
existence of that document for a year until Baku announced that it
allegedly accepted it with some exceptions. "If we try to specify
the points Azerbaijan have accepted, we will see there are much more
exceptions than the points they have agreed with," the minister said.

He pointed out that the experience of the previous years shows that
all the efforts of Azerbaijan aimed to raise the conflict issue at
other international instances and influence the negotiations mediated
by the Minsk Group are destructive. "Despite all the obstacles created
by Azerbaijan on the way towards settlement of the conflict, Armenia
is ready to further exert efforts to settle the Karabakh conflict,"
Edward Nalbandian said.