Presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia Ilham Aliyev, Serzh Sargsyan and Dmitriy Medvedev met in Kazan on 24 June.
Head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov spoke on the outcome of the meeting of Presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, held in Kazan.
"I want to point out that the Armenian side once again uses the situation around the negotiation process for their own gain, accusing Azerbaijan of thwarting the adoption of guidelines, thus misleading the world community. However, I have to note that the negotiation process continues, as Azerbaijan is interested in peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem and has repeatedly demonstrated its will in this matter. For many years Azerbaijan has been the party ensuring peace in the region. The political will of the Azerbaijani leadership and its President has been directed at continuation of the peace talks and at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict for all those years. Those officials in Armenia, who claim that they supposedly are making efforts to prevent the resumption of hostilities, simply engaged in deceiving the international community.
Prior to the talks in Kazan the international community and mediators voiced optimistic messages of that core principles for the settlement of the conflict may be adopted at this meeting. Despite the fact that the basic principles in Kazan have not been adopted, it was decided to continue negotiations. During the talks in Kazan, Azerbaijan, whose territory remains under occupation, and more than a million people are still unable to return to their homes, was to voice its stance on this issue. Armenia, unfortunately, as in previous years began to accuse Azerbaijan of being the cause of failure in the negotiations. Everyone knows that Armenia frustrated the agreements reached in Athens, and in St. Petersburg.
It arrived in Sochi with its ready project which was not at all coordinated with the mediators. Armenia is used to playing tricks. Unfortunately, the Armenian Foreign Ministry continues this. Negotiations are hard to move forward, but we will continue insisting on our positions and principles, despite the actions of the Armenian side. Azerbaijani territories are occupied, over a million of Azerbaijan are refugees, which is why our President is doing everything possible to find solution to this conflict. I have to repeat that despite no definite agreements were reached in Kazan, it is necessary to stress the role of Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev who continues efforts to solve the conflict.
As for what prompts Armenia to frustrate negotiations, Mammadov said this question really needs an answer.
“I think that given the sensitivity of the current stage of the negotiation process, it would be improper to make any comments. But I suppose that our journalists, political scientists and experts, while closely analyzing the established situation, would guess easily who backs Armenia. A complex negotiation process is carried on and the president of the country makes titanic effort to solve this conflict. As is known, the attention of the world community to this problem has increased. Just ahead of the meeting in Kazan, President of Azerbaijan had a phone call with his US counterpart Barack Obama, received a personal message from President Nicholas Sarkozy of France. It means that the world community is watching the negotiation process closely. For this reason, we have to take the steps to promote the resolution of the conflict but not to hamper the negotiation process”, he said.
Presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia Ilham Aliyev, Serzh Sargsyan and Dmitriy Medvedev met in Kazan earlier on 24 June.
The summit ended without reaching agreements on main principles of solution in Nagorno Karabakh but the sides stated progress on the way to this goal, according to a joint statement by result of the summit in Kazan.
The sides discussed main principles of Nagorno Karabakh settlement.
“The heads of states stated reaching mutual understanding on a range of issues that promote creating conditions for agreeing main principles”, the statement says.
The document says that the meeting participants viewed the process of work held to coordinate the draft main principles.
Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia thanked the leaders of Russia, the United States and France, who co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, ‘for their constant attention to the problem of Nagorno Karabakh’.
They appreciated personal efforts of the Russian president in mediating agreements, according to the statement.
Kazan summit is the ninth trilateral meeting on the high level since 2008 and the second this year. The previous summit was held in Sochi on 5 March.
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