Armenia not going to transform Euronest Parliamentary Assembly into a propaganda tool - Sargsyan says

YEREVAN, March 17. / ARKA /. Speaking at the opening meeting of the fourth ordinary session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan today president Serzh Sargsyan said Armenia was not going to transform this platform into a propaganda tool or conduit to sow interethnic hostility, as it has been the case in Azerbaijan. 

“We will try to take best advantage of the opportunities provided by this Assembly for the benefit of peaceful coexistence and cooperation of our nations. The best testimony to what I just stated was active participation of the Armenian delegations in a wide range of events that took place in Azerbaijan, including the Ordinary Session that took place in Baku back in 2012. I regret that Azerbaijani side evades meeting us halfway by responding to our steps towards constructive dialogue,” he said.

Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process president Sargsyan said It is more disturbing that Azerbaijan demonstrates unconstructive and maximalist stance in the very process of the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict by backtracking on the already agreed points, by consistently trying to change the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship or to launch negotiations on the great treaty without registering agreement on the basic principles. 

‘It should be obvious that the keys to the settlement of this issue are not located in Paris, Moscow or Washington, but in Baku, Stepanakert and Yerevan. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan invents far-fetched excuses in order to avoid the settlement based on the principles proposed by the Co-Chairs. I think such tactics of that country deserves unequivocal assessment of the international community and European institutions,” Sargsyan said.

“Regardless of Azerbaijan’s unrealistic claims and periodic provocations carried out on the Line-of-Contact there is no alternative to the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. It has been the position of international community, especially in the recent years, that there is no alternative to the comprehensive settlement of this conflict but by the exercise of the people’s right to free expression of their will and self-determination, which is grounded in the European and universal values. This conflict can be comprehensively settled through the free exercise of this right by the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. That is the approach upon which the proposal of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs is built,’ he concluded. -0-