YEREVAN. – There exist the Madrid Principles which the conflicting parties have accepted as basis for negotiations, but they have not accepted all the principles in them. 

Armenia Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told the aforementioned to reporters, reflecting on the statement which the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group Co-Chairs released on Monday.
“In this case, Azerbaijan’s stance does not allow progress in the talks,” Kocharyan specifically said.   

Commenting on the Co-Chairs’ statement that the ceasefire agreement “left the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh occupied and failed to provide a path forward on status for Nagorno-Karabakh,” the Armenian deputy FM said: “There is a disagreement on these two and, as per the Co-Chairs, this has not achieved progress.” 

In Kocharyan’s words, it is apparent that Azerbaijan wants to forego the OSCE Minsk Group format, and for the simple reason that this format is a restraining mechanism, it is specialized, and it knows the background of the conflict very well.

In addition, according to Armenia’s deputy FM, the UN Security Council three permanent member states—Russia, US, and France—are engaged in the aforesaid format, and all the respective statements clearly say one thing: a peaceful settlement.

“This format has two missions: to contribute so that the parties are able to achieve an agreement [based] on compromises; and not to permit for this fragile truce to interrupt and turn into military operations,” Shavarsh Kocharyan specifically noted.