Armenia refuses to "constructively "negotiate with Azerbaijan
By Rashid Shirinov
Armenia, as always, is making every effort to disrupt peace talks aimed at solving the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The aggressor country intensified ceasefire breaches on the frontline and launched large-scale drills in the occupied Azerbaijani lands in anticipation of a planned meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers in New York within the UN General Assembly session.
Most recently, Vice-Chairman of Armenia’s National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov announced that the Republican Party has no significant expectations from the upcoming meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers, once again proving Yerevan’s unwieldiness to move forward in the conflict settlement.
Sharmazanov’s statement confirms that the Armenian authorities are not interested in any positive developments in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Instead Baku, demands real progress in the conflict settlement, but not ‘meetings for the sake of meeting’.
The violent flare-up in April 2016 has showed that the status quo is unacceptable anymore and further hostilities risk a larger regional conflagration with far-reaching humanitarian consequences.
However, Armenia continues its efforts to preserve the status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh turning downs calls by Azerbaijan and international mediators.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have voiced hope that following a meeting of foreign ministers in New York, it will be possible to organize a meeting on the presidential level.
However, Armenia undermines these hopes. Yerevan continues to play for time and avoids substantive negotiations.
Baku has repeatedly stated that it is ready only for substantive negotiations, that is, for negotiations, during which real actions contributing to the conflict settlement are to be discussed.
However, the current Armenian leadership will never go for this as it came to power thanks to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The end of conflict will mean the end of the reign of Sargsyan’s team. In this context, the international mediators should put great pressure on Armenia in order to make its authorities to join substantive negotiations with Azerbaijan.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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