YEREVAN. - The fact that the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries for the first time took part in the summit of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents shows the extreme importance which the co-chairing countries attach to the prevention of a new escalation and  implementation of the reached agreements to create conditions for resuming the negotiation process.

Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian said the aforementioned in an interview with Interfax, responding to the question as to how possible the implementation of Vienna agreements is. 

“The Co-Chairs have repeatedly stated about the importance of confirming the commitment to the exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including at the level of the presidents of these countries and in the well-known five statements, adopted by them in regard to the conflict settlement. Armenia has confirmed its commitment to the peaceful settlement not only in words but also in deeds.”

“The co-chairing countries have for many times called all the sides to the conflict to strictly observe the tripartite unlimited duration ceasefire agreements of 1994 and 1995. Azerbaijan constantly ignored this calls, unleashing what I would call “a guerilla war” against these documents in the international organizations, trying to call into question their validity. The Co-Chairs immediately gave corresponding response to this at the OSCE and UN.”   

“The necessity to establish incident investigation mechanisms was repeatedly stressed, including in the two statements of the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, adopted in Sochi in 2011 and 2012, as well as in the recent joint statement of the co-chairing countries following the summit of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Bern in December last year. Azerbaijan had so far impeded this,” Nalbandian said, expressing hope that this time Azerbaijan will not defeat the hopes of the co-chairing countries and the expectations of the international community.