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St. Petersburg meeting differred from previous ones: official

23 June 2016 [12:13] - TODAY.AZ

/By Azernews/

By Gunay Camal

The St. Petersburg meeting over the Nagorno-Karabakh was more constructive from the viewpoint of approach to all issues, which demonstrated the sides' interest in resolving the conflict.

Deputy Head of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department, Novruz Mammadov made the remark, mentioning that the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents' most recent meeting can be considered different from the previous ones, Azertac reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has brought together Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia on June 20 in St Petersburg, where the sides have confirmed their readiness to seek a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The sides particularly exchanged views on such issues as reducing tension on the line of contact, ensuring a high level security and conducting a more comprehensive monitoring.

The St. Petersburg talks became the logical continuation of Vienna talks held in May, aiming to resume the negotiation process of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

Mammadov further stated that Armenia's provocation on the line of contact between the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in early April and the Azerbaijani army’s decent response to this was in fact a message to the parties concerned – both OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and the whole world.

“The message was that failure to resolve the conflict so far, its remaining unchangeable and in a certain sense its being considered frozen, is a very dangerous position. It also revealed the need to resolve the conflict,” he said, adding that all these issues also had an impact on the intensification of negotiations and organization of meetings with the heads of state and officials of both countries.

Emphasizing that the meeting organized by Russia was more appropriate, the official said the negotiations at the meeting give ground to say that President Putin is more resolute to settle the conflict.

Two decades of talks mediated by the OSCE MG group have failed to produce a breakthrough, and the four-day war further undermined the hope for a peaceful resolution.

The renewed hostilities, the worst since the ceasefire deal signed in 1994, were assessed as the result of inactivity of the international community, which turned blind eye to the injustice towards Azerbaijan.

Even though both sides avoided escalation into a full-scale war, the international community and the mediator countries realized that the truce in Nagorno-Karabakh is fragile, and the conflict could easily accelerate anew.

Mammadov also hailed President Aliyev`s policy in the intensification of talks and achievement of certain agreements at such meetings. "At all his meetings the head of state underlines that the status quo cannot continue and steps must be taken to resolve the conflict," he said.

"The results of this meeting is the reaction of the world community, the co-chair countries and international organizations who approved the Azerbaijani President's stance which he voiced in his speeches at all meetings, high-level forums, conferences and summits. The head of state has always noted that sooner or later this conflict must be resolved within the norms and principles of international law, the Armenian armed forces must leave the occupied Azerbaijani territories, Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons must return to their native lands," Mammadov said.

Noting that in St. Petersburg the sides agreed to continue regular meetings in this format, Mammadov reminded that here too much depends on what steps the Armenian side will take.

Baku, which has suffered from Yerevan's aggressive policy for more than two decades, has repeatedly stated that the presence of the Armenian Armed Forces in the occupied territories is a major obstacle to the settlement of the conflict and threat to the regional stability.

Azerbaijan is still committed to the peaceful negotiated solution to the conflict, while Yerevan each time tried to blow the negotiation process. Such a situation was observed in 2009-2014 and in April 2016.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/152027.html

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