A cursory analysis of responses to the Obama, Sarkozy, Medvedev statements shows the Armenian media and society underestimate this document, Konstantin Zatulin, the Director of the Institute of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and member of the International Affairs Committee, RF State Duma, told journalists July 2.

“Even if what you have repeatedly heard concerning the contents of the documents – when it is said by the Presidents, it acquires a new importance,” he said.

Zatulin stressed the Presidents’ statement was made while Azerbaijan was convincing itself of winning the propaganda warfare and could make Turkey return to the old declarations on Karabakh. The statement repeats those provisions voiced at the presidential meeting in St Petersburg, which ended in demarche by Ilham Aliyev.

The Armenian side should not demand that U.S., France and Russia agree with it, as they rarely agree to each other one hundred per cent, Zatulin said.

He noted the document underlines the necessity of vacating the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, not Karabakh itself. It proves the Co-Chairs see the difference between the status of the territories in question and Nagorno-Karabakh. The mediators do not view Karabakh as an occupied territory by the Armenian side, Zatulin stressed.

According to him, the statement underlines the importance of a corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. This means that, whatever the solution is, Nagorno-Karabakh’s status will not be identical to the one Azerbaijan insists on.

“It was at that point that Aliyev was indignant in Saint Petersburg. If there is a corridor, there is another status for Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.

On June 26, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, U.S. President Barack Obama, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued the following statement on Karabakh from the G8 Summit:

“We welcome as a significant step the recognition by both sides that a lasting settlement must be based upon the Helsinki Principles and the elements that we proposed in connection with our statement at the L’Aquila Summit of the Eight on July 10, 2009, relating to: the return of the occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh guaranteeing security and self-governance, a corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh; final status of Nagorno-Karabakh to be determined in the future by a legally-binding expression of will, the right of all internally-displaced persons and refugees to return, and international security guarantees, including a peacekeeping operation,” the statement reads.