Sargsyan: Negotiations hold under shelling can never be promising.

ArmInfo.The reckless four-day military escapade carried out by Azerbaijan in April 2016 was the epitome of Baku's years-long belligerent policy and ideology,  said Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan during a meeting AT THE  CARNEGIE CENTER, on February 28

"It dealt a heavy blow to the NK peace process. Azerbaijani  aggression proved once again that the struggle of the people of  Artsakh for living safely on their own land and be free has no  alternative. This is not an opinion, but the reality created and  imposed on us by Azerbaijan's policy. There are strictly defined  agreements reached in Vienna and Saint Petersburg after the April  war, related to upholding of the unlimited tri-party ceasefire  agreements of 1994-1995 and on the creation in the conflict zone of  the mechanisms to investigate violations of the ceasefire regime.  However, Azerbaijan, true to its long- standing tradition, refuses to  implement these agreements and declares that their implementation  will allegedly reinforce the existing status quo in Nagorno  Karabakh", noted Sargsyan. He added that if Azerbaijan is really  concerned about the status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh, there is only one  way to change it, by recognizing the right of people of Karabakh to  self-determination. 

According to Armenian leader, "It would be naive to assume that  Azerbaijan was unaware of the heavy blow it dealt to the peace  process, to reinforcing the status quo, to pushing pack the peace  process.  Obviously, Baku is using the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to  divert the attention and rising discontent within its own society  related to the pressing social and economic issues and blatant  violations of human rights in the country. For that very reason, Baku  recently stated that Nagorno Karabakh was its "internal affair." It  has been for years that the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, namely  France, Russia and the US, who form the agreed international format,  have been mediating the Nagorno Karabakh issue. Someone in Baku might  have had a bad dream and based on that deluded himself that these  three major international actors have put aside their own complicated  issues and suddenly chose to engage in Azerbaijan's "internal affair.  The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, as mediators, are also called  upon to prevent possible escalation in the area of conflict.  Negotiations conducted under the shelling hold no promise", Sargsyan  said. 

"This was just an episode from the theater of absurd which is being  staged in Baku. We encounter it almost on a daily basis. However,  sincere outbursts also happen. On one such instance, the leader of  Azerbaijan, trying to boost his very significance in front of his  subordinates, admitted publicly that at the negotiations behind the  closed doors he was under pressure to recognize independence of  Nagorno Karabakh, and he was the sole person able to withstand the  pressure coming from the Co- Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group", he  said.

At the same time he recalled, "The people of Artsakh have voted for  the presidential model of governance. As you see, with regard to the  system of governance, the positions of Armenia and Nagorno Artsakh  differ; however, the resolve to build a democratic system is  unwavering. The people of Artsakh have been manifesting that resolve  for decades - they formed through the elections their executive,  legislative, and local government bodies. The people of Artsakh dream  of no other future and are busy with creating a free society based on  human rights and basic liberties".