Artsakh Foreign Minister: There are still no grounds for positive  expectations from the talks

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  Mamedyarov singled out the provisions of the document,  according to which "Armenian troops must be withdrawn from  Azerbaijani territories."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 Mammadyarov singled out the provisions of the document,  according to which "Armenian troops must be withdrawn from  Azerbaijani territories."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.