President: Armenia hasn’t toughened its stance on Karabakh
YEREVAN, May 25. /ARKA/. Armenia hasn’t toughened its stance in negotiations with Azerbaijan on Karabakh conflict, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at a press conference on Friday.
“I don’t think Armenia has toughened its positions in talks with Azerbaijan. It applies not to us. Karabakh’s status is the key issue in the negotiations. We make this issue clearer expecting answers to our questions. But it doesn’t mean we make our position tougher”, he said.
The head of state said Armenia is willing to continue the talks.
He said that he will meet his Azerbaijani counterpart in St. Petersburg in early June.
“I hope that after this meeting Azerbaijani media won’t distort the essence again by saying that Armenia has toughened its positions.”
Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Artsakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.
On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.
Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it.
On May 12, 1994 Bishkek cease-fire agreement, put an end to the military operations.
Since 1992, negotiations over the peaceful settlement of the conflict have been carried out under the OSCE Minsk Group’s mediation. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France. M.V.-0---
