YEREVAN. – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s speech at the PACE summer session was the most peaceful. The speech showed that the “ball is in Azerbaijan’s court”, Director of the Noravank foundation Gagik Harutyunyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“In his speech President Sargsyan said that if a document is signed at Kazan meeting, it will give an opportunity to begin work on a basic agreement. I think that if an agreement is reached, the document will be signed,” Harutyunyan noted, adding the OSCE Minsk Group pressures both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The expert stressed that since 1994 the international community has been exerting pressure but Armenia never ceded an inch of land within the recent 17 years. In this respect, it should not be noted that only the Armenian side is under pressure and is going to make concessions.

Referring to concessions, Harutyunyan said if Nagorno-Karabakh becomes part of Azerbaijan, the existence of Karabakh and Karabakh people will be endangered, as it poses threat to genocide and displacement of Karabakhi people from the historical lands. According to him, this option is ruled out. He stressed if some of the liberated territories are ceded to Azerbaijan, Karabakh will appear in deplorable state in terms of military strategy.

“Today we have good defensive positions. We will lose them and become vulnerable if Azerbaijan carries out its war-mongering rhetoric,” he noted.

The expert added that Nagorno-Karabakh issue will not be resolved without Karabakh’s involvement. Prerequisites for Karabakh to join the negotiating table have been since 1994