U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the region is a follow-up to the Obama-Medvedev-Sarkozy statement on Nagorno-Karabakh, Hrair Karapetyan, the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defense a member of the ARF parliamentary faction, told NEWS.am.

Aliyev’s behavior over recent period, as well as provocations on the contact line between the Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces aroused the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ concern. The international community is concerned over the possibility of hostilities in the region. This is the reason for their wish to speed up the peace process, he said.

Karapetyan also pointed out that some points in the three Presidents’ statement are not precisely worded. The phrase “occupied territories” indicates a biased approach, ignoring the fact that Azerbaijan occupied a number of Armenian regions, particularly Shahumyan, Getashen and Artsvashen.

“I think the issue should be discussed at the negotiations. It is also unclear what Nagorno-Karabakh’s interim status means and whether peoples’ right to self-determination can be exercised in this case. The idea of interim status fails to reflect peoples’ right to self-determination. Also, it is unclear how, where and when the issue of referendum will be settled. And, the most important thing, the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh’s participation in the negotiations remains ignored,” the MP said.

According to him, the Armenian authorities must raise all the aforementioned problems both at the negotiations and at meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. However, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian’s “optimistic response” to the Presidents’ statement creates a pessimistic mood as “the Foreign Minister had no grounds for such a statement.”

As to whether the U.S. Secretary of State’s visit to the region might bring about a radical change in the Armenian-Turkish process, Karapetyan said: “An indirect consequence of football diplomacy is that Turkey, with Azerbaijan’s help, sets a precondition, namely, a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem in conformity with its own scenario. Although the superpowers will not admit it, stressing the two have nothing in common, the fact that both Mrs. Clinton and high-ranking officials of different states, while speaking of Karabakh, touch on Armenian-Turkish relations means Turkey has achieved its goal.”

Karapetyan added that Armenia must reject any attempts to link the two problems and, showing determination, walk out of the Armenian-Turkish process. He pointed out the need for raising the issue at meetings with Hillary Clinton.