“Ilham Aliyev’s bellicose statements on the threshold of his meeting with Serzh Sargsyan are a mere attempt to exert pressure on Armenia. This means that Azerbaijan is concerned over something. It may be the Armenia-Turkey normalization process,” Armn Melikyan, the ex-foreign minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) told NEWS.am.

On the other hand, he believes that the meeting is a necessity, and the Armenian side must plainly state its hard line. “I have repeatedly stated that the negotiation process took an illogical course, which has never contributed to the settlement of the conflict. The parties’ positions remain incompatible. Any appreciable results are difficult to achieve unless the logic of the process changes,” Melikyan said.

He also pointed out that the Madrid principles are complicating the process, as they contain “unfeasible provisions and lack the potential for settling the conflict.” “A realistic view of the issue should be taken: the problem to be discussed must cover the period from the February 1988 ethnic cleansing, rather than from the military operations, up to now,” Melikyan said.

“Since Soviet times Azerbaijan has not changed its policy. Both then and now that country tries to resolve its problems with Armenia by force,” he said.