Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov announced Friday in Baku that the announcements made by the Armenian government officials with regards to defining the status of Nagorno-Karabakh in the beginning of the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement are unconstructive.
“If the Armenian side is once again trying to accept its former position [according to which the first issue that must be solved is the status of Nagorno-Karabakh] as a starting point, that neither corresponds to the discussions of the sides during the negotiations, nor the Prague process, nor the conflict settlement through stages,” he said.
According to Mammedyarov, the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides and the co-presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group have also announced several times that the first thing to do is remove the Armenian forces.
“Then peacekeeping personnel have to be dispersed, the former structures must be reinstated, the Azerbaijanis forced from their homes must return to their residencies, and only after that will the status of Nagorno-Karabakh be discussed,” he added. “If the Armenian side is still proposing the definition of the status in the beginning and then the solution to other issues, then that is not a constructive position. That means to declare the entire negotiations process to date as invalid.”