Baku: Sargsyan tries to maintain status quo for his own interest
By Gunay Camal
While diplomats and observers wait for perceptible talks in June between the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Yerevan by all means tries to disrupt the talks that would eventually end the status-quo.
The matter is that since the status-quo allows Armenia to continue its occupation policy and its change means the end of the conflict, the Sargsyan regime tries to disrupt the talks making fatuous statements.
But there is just one big problem with that picture. In reality, Yerevan is destroying not only all peace efforts of Baku, but also the international community that does not seem to be able to deal with the new hot point in case the hostilities renew.
Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department, commenting on Sargsyan’s recent statement told APA that telling so much lies, Sargsyan shows that he even bears no responsibility for the people of Armenia.
“Sargsyan thinks that whatever he says, everyone will believe. As he is accustomed to telling lies, the Armenian president, instead of holding discussions at the Astana summit of the Eurasian Economic Union member countries, states that allegedly Azerbaijan appealed to Moscow to intervene in combat operations on the contact line in early April,” Mammadov noted.
Mammadov recalled that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan begged for Moscow’s help during the April clashes and got in touch with Russia’s defense minister and chief of the Russian general staff to pressure on Azerbaijan to stop the counter attacks in April. “Forgetting about all this, Sargsyan is making such statements,” he said.
Mentioning Sargsyan’s remark made in his interview to Bloomberg about that war can break out at any moment, Mammadov stated that Sargsyan thinks that war can break out at any moment as he is aware of the responsibility for the occupation and the crimes committed
“But a president should think about his people’s fate and not sacrifice all for his own interests,” Mammadov said, noting that Sargsyan is doing the opposite, trying to maintain the status quo for his own interest.
The Azerbaijani official emphasized that the Armenian authorities should know that Azerbaijan’s occupied territories have to be freed.
“We want those territories freed through negotiations. Otherwise, we will liberate them ourselves, even if it be by the way Sargsyan mentioned,” the top official said.
Commenting on Sargsyan’s saying that, Armenia will return to the talks only after Azerbaijan frees the lands liberated in April, Mammadov said: “Sargsyan has learned to lie and slander. Such statements are not worth paying attention to. Sargsyan had better think of a castle in the air rather than hoping for those lands.”
The two South Caucasus countries -- Azerbaijan and Armenia remain in a state of war since early 1990s when the latter staged a war against its neighbor.
Peace talks over the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that emerged over Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. However, as Armenia continues to follow non-constructive position, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years.
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