Wednesday, April 22 2020 13:58

ArmInfo. The rather intelligible,  completely diplomatic response of Armenia's Foreign Minister Zohrab  Mnatsakan showed that there is no secret document at the negotiating  table on the Karabakh peace process. Member of the Standing Committee  on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly of Armenia Hovhannes  Igityan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo,.  

On April 21, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the  signing by the parties of the document adopted in April 2019 at a  meeting of the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in  Moscow, as an important step in implementing the UN Security Council  resolution on the Karabakh settlement. "These documents imply  progress in the settlement on the basis of a phased approach. I  believe the first stage is the solution of the most pressing  problems, the liberation of a number of areas around Nagorno-Karabakh  and the unblocking of transport, economic and other communications,"  he said.  

"As a guarantor of Artsakh's security, Armenia is unequivocally  convinced that Artsakh's presence at the negotiating table is  necessary. It is pointless to look for any hidden subtext, a veiled,  hidden process. In this light, the statements of the representatives  of the former Armenian authorities on the existence of a secret  negotiation process on Artsakh are strange. Especially considering  the fact  that precisely because of their lack of professionalism and  lack of legitimacy, Russia in 2010-2011 managed to highlight their  own rules of the game in the form of the Kazan settlement plan or the  so-called "Lavrov's plan," he noted.  

At the same time, Igityan believes, we must not forget that Lavrov is  a diplomat, and in this context he urged to think about why the  Russian Foreign Minister maid such a statement and  did it  at this  particular time. In this light, the parliamentarian recalled the  parliamentary and presidential elections in Artsakh, as well as their  assessment of the co-chairing countries aslawful and necessary for  the formation of local authorities. At the same time, they already  traditionally noted that the elections in Artsakh have no influence  on the settlement process and are not capable of influencing it.

  Another noteworthy, favorable, in his estimation, statement for  Artsakh was the opinion of  Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman  Maria Zakharova, who described the elections in Artsakh as a  necessary opportunity for the people of Artsakh to influence their  own destiny, following which was an organized diplomatic attack by  Azerbaijan on international community , including PACE and Russia. In  this light, Igityan sees Sergey Lavrov's latest statement as an  attempt to balance all previous statements.  

"In fact, the settlement process can really be called a phased  process, but not in the context of the surrender of territories   which some people are trying to present this in Azerbaijan, and oddly   enough, in Armenia.  

"In fact, the settlement process can really be called a step-by-step  process, but not in the context of handing over territories, which  some people are trying to present in Azerbaijan, strange as it may   seem, in Armenia.  

In reality, the first stage was the negotiations in Vienna in the  direction of developing measures to achieve an environment of trust,  which became simply a necessity, given the aggression of Azerbaijan  against Artsakh in April 2016 and, as a result, the complete  impossibility of negotiating with the aggressor.  After that, all  international calls for an exclusively peaceful resolution of the  conflict, in fact, were addressed to Azerbaijan, "the parliamentarian  summed up.  

Two hours after Lavrov's statement, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab  Mnatsakanyan voiced the unacceptability of a phased resolution of the  conflict for the Armenian parties to the conflict. According to him,  after trying to apply such approaches in 2014 and 2016, starting in  2018, negotiations were limited to a discussion of assessments, the  views of the parties on individual elements.

"The proposals of 2014 are not a negotiating table document. We more  than clearly spoke about our positions where the security is an  emphasized priority for the Armenian parties. We will not make any  decision that would jeopardize the security of the people of Artsakh.  Over the past two years our government more than transparently  expressed our approaches and positions, and if someone assumes that  we can say one thing during the talks and another to the public, he  is deeply mistaken.. There is no such thing and there cannot be. My  colleague presented his approach, I presented my approach, on which  we have been working consistently for two years, "the Armenian  Foreign Minister stated.