ArmInfo. There are no grounds for positive expectations from the meetings of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the latest rounds of negotiations on Artsakh. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Artsakh, former Foreign Minister of Artsakh Arman Melikyan expressed this opinion to ArmInfo.
"Armenian negotiators have not revised their own approaches to the content of the negotiation process. Moreover, their proposals on the format - return of Artsakh to the negotiating table, have not been accepted. Against this background, it is obvious that Baku will be consistent in exerting political pressure on Yerevan. One of the latest manifestations of this pressure was the statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Mammadyarov about a specific conversation in Washington about the deployment of peacekeepers in the conflict zone. At the same time, the response statement of our Foreign Ministry only aggravated fears and doubts, "the diplomat stressed.
On June 24, commenting on the meeting on June 20 with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that during the talks in Washington, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs had again submitted the previously discussed documents. Mamedyarov singled out the provisions of the document, according to which "Armenian troops must be withdrawn from Azerbaijani territories." The next day, the Armenian Foreign Ministry officially denied this information.
On June 24, commenting on the June 20 meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that during the talks in Washington, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs had again submitted the previously discussed documents. Mammadyarov singled out the provisions of the document, according to which "Armenian troops must be withdrawn from Azerbaijani territories." The next day, the Armenian Foreign Ministry officially denied this information. Meanwhile, according to Melikyan, the appearance of the peacekeepers in Artsakh will be the beginning of the gradual surrender of its territory to Azerbaijan, inevitably accompanied by the disarmament of the Artsakh military forces. In his opinion, the reason for the deployment of peacekeepers in Artsakh may be the need for "preventing clashes between the opposing sides on the Line of Contact." "The latest statements by Azerbaijani President Aliyev about the readiness to" liberate the occupied territories at any moment "in the political sense are a continuation of the negotiations and are being made to give Baku's demands additional weight. Armenia is being offered to surrender the territories voluntarily in exchange for peace, with threats to seize the same territories. Such a state of affairs, unfortunately, is nothing but a direct consequence of the weakness of the positions of the Armenian negotiators, "Melikyan said.