Epress.am News from Armenia
No matter how much the mediators had expressed optimism regarding conflict settlement, the internal contradictions among the Minsk Group co-chairs were evident during the meeting in Kazan and it’s very important to understand that similarity in position is not similarity in interests, said head of the Heritage Party parliamentary faction Stepan (Styopa) Safaryan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today and referring to the Jun. 24–25 meeting of the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia.
“Under similar positions were very different interests, and in this sense, the Kazan meeting was doomed to fail from the start — not only because of the difference in the Minsk Group co-chairs’ interests, but also for one simple reason: the fact of Azerbaijan giving room to maneuver,” he said.
According to the MP, the projection by the Armenian National Congress (HAK) that at the meeting Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will stand before two facts — either sign the document and have problems back home or, in order to gain time, be forced to come to Armenia and organize early elections — was too simple.
“In this case too the [Armenian National] Congress would declare that its pressure yielded outcomes, that its projections have come true. They simply don’t take into account that there is also a third path: the Armenian side took advantage of all the emergency exits and now the responsibility falls on Azerbaijan,” said Safaryan, adding he arrived at such a conclusion after recent statements by HAK members. However, he did not explain who or which statements he was referring to.
The opposition MP stated that it’s not worth waiting for major shifts in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict — even the possibility of war doesn’t seem real to him.
He explained, with a smile: “In any case, there can’t be a war this year at least because Azerbaijan, with great fanfare, is preparing for Eurovision, and probably one of the smartest moves by the Armenian side will be to appeal to the international community with the proposal to declare Baku the Eurovision capital once and for all.”