According to the former foreign affairs minister of the NKR Arman Melikyan during the Jul 17 meeting of Sargsyan-Aliyev Armenia will not sign any document.
Regarding the Madrid principles published recently, Melikyan said that the co-chairs’ recommendations might be changed, redefined but the basic notion remains the same. “Armenian parties have been demanded to return the liberated territories to Azerbaijan according to both versions of the principles by postponing the resolution of Karabakh status,” the former FM said. According to Melikyan Azerbaijani party managed to define its problem to the world making Armenia an occupant. Melikyan said that the mediators’ try to solve the problem in political field and to transfer it to legal one. “The negotiations held today are not in legal field,” Melikyan said. In this respect the former FM thinks the resignation, demanded by some political bodies, is in vain. When speaking of the other versions of the resolution of the NKR conflict, in particular the options offered before 1998 Melikyan said that there are certain re-formulations but the essence remains the same. “I don’t think the demand to make foreign minister to resign is sensible, it’s useless,” Melikyan said. “I don’t think that Armenia will sign any document on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution during Sargsyan-Aliyev forthcoming meeting in Moscow on 17 July,” Melikyan says. According to the former NKR foreign minister Armen Melikyan, the co-chairs force Armenia to yield the territories and to return the Azerbaijani refuges to the NKR territory. Azerbaijan managed to present its interests, while the Armenian side failed. Now all the blame is put on Armenia and it is forced to return the territories, stated the former foreign minister. Melikyan thinks that Armenia had to insist on the question on preserving the territories as a guarantee for security and had to bring up the question on recompense to the Armenian refugees. Arman Melikyan noted that the mediators mutated the Nagorno-Karabakh issue and the negotiations are not proceeding in the format of international right. There is a point in the principles of Madrid, which provides for a possibility for all the deported people to return. In Azerbaijan, they are getting ready for the return of a very big mass and they are said to inhabit Fizuli and Jebrail. According to the principles of Madrid, the Armenian side accepts that NKR is the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region. This means that Armenia admits it is an aggressor. The Armenian side agreed on deploying peace forces, which has no sense, according to Melikyan. In accordance with the principles of Madrid, a narrow road is left as a land connection between Armenia and Karabakh, which is left for the Armenians to leave Karabakh through it, stated Melikyan. “The situation over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution is not so tragic, it would be better if the Armenian parties be wise and ignore in-house disagreements, draft a project and keep going on,” Melikyan told.