Matthew Bryza: "I don’t know that there will be anything signed on the Nagorno Karabakh any time soon"

"I don’t know that there will be anything signed on the Nagorno Karabakh any time soon.

I didn’t see the quote of the ambassador Yovanovitch but. I hope though that there will be agreement on the basic principals, let say by the middle of the year, summer time. But it remains to be seen whether anything whatever will be signed at that point. The basic principals of settlement, once they are agreed they became an outline of formal then document that later will be negotiated and signed", said Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair in his interview with APA. Speaking about the US ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch’s statement about possibility of the framework agreement on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Bryza said he didn’t know the ambassador’s announcements and quotes. “Again, I didn’t read that quote but I don’t necessarily anticipate signing of anything this summer unless the presidents say they do want to sign something. May be they will maybe they will not.

We really need to sustain the positive momentum on Nagorno-Karabakh that presidents Aliyev and Sarkisyan have built. And their meeting in Zurich was positive and was the most productive meeting between the presidents what I have experienced today on Nagorno-Karabakh. They both are being creative, I mean both presidents, and looking for the ways to bridge the final differences between their perspective countries position.

I think we have real chance to do that. We have the opportunity to help them find the right formulations, right concepts so that we get a balance and fair agreement and this agreement that will be complicated and must find some way to take into account the most important issue for Azerbaijan which is the territorial integrity. By the way, the USA, Russia, France and all Minsk group recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan", said Bryza and added that the agreement must taking into account Azerbaijan territorial integrity, and the Armenian desire for self determination. "Because that what Armenians say their most important point is. So there is going to be an agreement. You have to take it account. And you also should take into account the principle of non use of force. So I think that we can do this. In fact, we, the Minsk group Co-Chairs have proposed the way to do that and we are trying to finalize that text to maintain the balance in order which mutually agreeable. So that is our priority to get this job done".

/APA/