Epress.am News from Armenia
The roots of the current process had their beginnings in 1992, said Heritage Party representative, MP Stepan Safaryan, while speaking to journalists today about the resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“Regretfully, the three governments [in power] during Armenia’s independence said that yes, they have occupied certain territories. During the days of Levon Ter-Petrossian, the process transpired under the slogan ‘territories in exchange for peace,’ while it changed slightly during Robert Kocharian’s rule, ‘territories in exchange for status.’ Today, Serzh Sargsyan demands from Azerbaijan on one hand, peace, on the other hand, status,” he said.
Safaryan noted that the Heritage Party parliamentary faction considers the terminology in the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ latest statement to be unacceptable.
“They, in fact, openly used the phrase ‘occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh,’ which is our diplomacy’s defeat. If it continues at this rate, then perhaps I should say, yes, we should interfere with this process,” said the member of parliament.
In Safaryan’s opinion, the terminology in the last NATO Parliamentary Assembly report also changed — to the detriment of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Included in NATO’s mission report is Azerbaijan’s statement that if military operations resume, Azerbaijan will attack Armenia’s nuclear power plant,” he said.