YEREVAN. – The private talk between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan was important at the recent meeting in Paris; the latter achieved progress from this viewpoint. “European Integration” NGO Chairman, political scientist Karen Bekaryan noted the abovementioned at a press conference on Thursday.

As per Bekaryan, however, the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh party was not present at the Paris talks was a negative aspect of this meeting.

“If the NKR [i.e., the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic] does not participate in the negotiations, they can’t be productive. Paris, however, does not give importance to this,” the analyst stated.

He added that the other negative aspect of the Paris meeting was Azerbaijan’s attempt to legitimize the actions by its saboteurs.

Nonetheless, according to Karen Bekaryan, even conducting bad talks is better than firing shots.

“There is no trust [between the conflicting parties], but at least there is hope that the situation around the Karabakh conflict will not exacerbate,” the political scientist said.