YEREVAN. – The recent meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan did not stand out in terms of the agenda. Instead of holding discussions on the mechanisms for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict and the proposals made, the whole discussion was aimed at the border tensions, which Azerbaijan caused with its provocative actions.

Ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP Artak Zakaryan, who is also Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

In his view, through Azerbaijan’s “efforts,” the agenda of this matter moved to another dimension. Now, the parties are discussing how to ease border tensions in the case when one of these parties—i.e. Azerbaijan—is the creator of these tensions.

“The Azerbaijani authorities still hold the Karabakh issue to resolve their domestic issues; they delay the problem resolution format,” Zakaryan said. “[But] I believe that Azerbaijan’s approaches are depleting.”

As per the RPA MP, the Azerbaijani authorities’ problems will also include the fact that the country’s society and armed forces will see that they are unable to achieve success against the armed forces of Karabakh and Armenia, and therefore the Azerbaijani authorities will be obligated to return to the talks’ format.

“[But] we [i.e. the Armenian side] will rely on ourselves, on our armed forces and on diplomacy,” Artak Zakaryan added. “Regardless of Azerbaijan, we shall exert efforts for the development of our country, and this is being implemented.

“We shall maintain what we have in the process of the settlement of the Karabakh issue. (…) We, I mean Artsakh, are in the status of the winner. We realize that the matter will have a peaceful settlement; the military way is not a solution.”