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It will be impossible to embark on the second stage, if Karabakh does not give its consent to with the Basic Principles, said Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian, referring to the agreement on a settlement in the Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR) conflict and speaking at a joint press conference with Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt in Yerevan on Tuesday.
At a Jun. 8 meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in Stepanakert, NKR president Bako Sahakyan had stressed that it is impossible to settle the issue without the direct involvement of Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiations. Responding to a question by a journalist at the press conference, Nalbandian particularly noted:
“First of all, let me say that I fully agree with President Bako Sahakyan. It will be impossible to embark on the second stage, if Karabakh does not give its consent to with the Basic Principles. In the second phase it is planned to develop and prepare an agreement on the settlement, in which Nagorno-Karabakh should absolutely participate.
“For us, the cornerstone of peaceful settlement is that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh are the master of their destiny.”
To the question, since he mentioned a “second phase,” that it can be concluded from his answer that in Kazan an end to the first phase is anticipated, Nalbandian said the first phase can be considered to be complete only when not only Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also Nagorno-Karabakh gives its consent to the Basic Principles.
The Armenian foreign minister was also asked whether any document might be signed at the upcoming trilateral meeting of the presidents of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan in Kazan.
“You know that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press release after the trilateral meeting held in a ministerial level in Moscow, according to which the sides succeeded in approximating their positions over a number of key issues and if that positive trend is maintained in Kazan as well, then we will be able to register a positive progress,” Nalbandian responded, according to a RA MFA press release issued Tuesday.
During the press conference, Carl Bildt said that he would like to take this opportunity to declare Sweden’s support for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as expressing hope that any opportunity to resolve the conflict will be used. “And I hope that will be in the not-too-distant future.”
“There is no alternative to a peaceful resolution,” he said. “That requires a sense of compromise on both sides because a movement forward will require compromises.”
“But the ultimate prize is peace and that is, of course, of immense importance for both countries and for the possibilities of moving the region forward,” he added, reported RFE/RL’s Armenian service.