Azerbaijani and Armenian officials have both put a positive spin on the OSCE summit in Astana and the joint statement on Karabakh issued there.
"The statement on Nagorno-Karabakh adopted at the OSCE summit in Astana is a document that restricts Armenia’s capacity to take destructive steps," Novruz Mammadov, head of the Presidential Administration's foreign relations department, said in an interview with Azerbaijani news agency Trend.
He described as "very important" the joint declaration adopted by the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents and the heads of the summit delegations from Russia, France and the USA, the countries that co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group of mediators.
The statement "was adopted in the 3+2 format which in turn indicates the increased efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict at the current time", Mammadov said.
"The statement proves that it is important to create the conditions under which the parties, especially Armenia, will not take destructive steps in this process and find reasons to delay resolution. This statement is, therefore, a document that restricts Armenia’s capacity to take destructive steps. The statement sets the main goal of solving the conflict through peace talks and ensuring stability and security."
The presidential official said that the joint statement could be seen as a call to all three Minsk Group co-chairing countries to be more active on a conflict settlement. Russia has been the most active country on this for the past year, he said.
Mammadov described Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's speech at the OSCE summit as "a clear, strong message to the OSCE".
Before the summit some Armenian media speculated that President Serzh Sargsyan would be pushed into making concessions to Azerbaijan on Karabakh, something that did not happen.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said yesterday that the summit's commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflicts contradicted Azerbaijan's threat to use force if progress could not be made on a peace settlement.
"This all reveals the isolation of Azerbaijan," Shavarsh Kocharyan said.
Artak Davtyan, an MP from the Armenian president's Republican Party, described the OSCE summit as generally positive for Armenia, since the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries once again expressed their support for a peaceful settlement to the conflict.
Novruz Mammadov repeated Azerbaijan's position on a peaceful settlement in his interview with Trend news agency: "'Everyone knows that the best way to settle the conflict is the peaceful way through negotiations, without the use of force. This is, of course, the main point and one of the goals of the joint statement, adopted at the OSCE summit. And we agree to this. The Azerbaijani president is making every effort in this regard, though the Armenian army has been protracting the resolution of the conflict for a year by giving different promises and taking different steps.
"One of the goals of the statement is the peaceful resolution of the conflict and this statement reflects the position of the co-chairing countries’ leaders. In fact, this can be viewed as the OSCE position. But this does not mean that if the conflict is not solved, we won't use other opportunities for its settlement. We want the conflict to be settled without force. We do not want to move to the force principle."
Asked about the Armenian media's portrayal of the summit as a success for Yerevan, Mammadov said: 'It is now tradition to distort reality to meet one’s interests."
"'In fact, this is not true. What has Armenia achieved at the summit? I don't understand it. Armenia has gained nothing. This was caused by the adventurist policy of the Armenian leadership. The Armenian leadership and Armenian people should know that this leads to the country’s collapse. Sooner or later Azerbaijan will return its lands and liberate them. No one should doubt this."
1 news.az, Armenpress, ArmInfo
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