Armenia to continue pushing for negotiated settlement of Karabakh conflict: President Srgsyan says

YEREVAN, November 13. / ARKA /. Armenia will continue to push for a negotiated settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, despite Azerbaijan’s provocations, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview with French Le Figaro newspaper.

"Despite the fact that Azerbaijan glorifies an army officer who committed a heinous crime – killing by axe an Armenian peer when he was asleep we will continue to do everything possible to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict’ Sargsyan said.

Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army Lt. convicted by a Hungarian court to life in prison for killing an Armenian colleague, Gurgen Margarian, had been sent by Hungary back to Azerbaijan to serve his prison sentence where he was pardoned by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. Lt. Ramil Safarov was given a life sentence in 2006 by a Hungarian court after he confessed to killing Lt. Gurgen Margarian, an Armenian, while both were in Hungary for a 2004 NATO language course. Azerbaijan’s president decision prompted Armenia to suspend diplomatic ties with Hungary.

Sargsyan said to Le Figaro that during a meeting held in Paris by Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers the sides agreed to continue negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict within the existing format, but "nevertheless, this meeting is far from being able to generate new hope."

"Baku rejects international principles proposed by peace brokers as a basis for negotiations and believes that it is possible to directly negotiate a peace settlement without reconciling it with the basic principles. But a peace agreement can be effective only if it is based on reasonable and clear principles," said the president. -0-