Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s speech was the most impressive at the Astana Summit. He underlined the necessity of ruling out any use of force in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Razmik Zohrabyan, Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), told journalists Dec. 3.

“U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement was a most important one as well. She pointed out the equality of all the three basic principles. That was pressure on the Azeri President, who gives priority to territorial integrity. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s speech was rather forceful. He pointed out that Armenia will recognize the NKR should Azerbaijan attempt a military settlement of the conflict,” Zohrabyan said.

Responding to NEWS.am’s question concerning the reasons why an Armenian-Azerbaijani presidential meeting failed in Astana and why the Azeri leader “escaped,” Zohrabyan said: “The five-sided statement contains the first-ever reference to the U.N. Charter, which gives priority to peoples’ self-determination. Following this principle, dozens of countries struggled for and gained independence. In fact, Aliyev was well aware he would have to push forward the territorial integrity principle at that meeting, while the Armenian side would have stated all the three principles were equal. In any case, the U.N. Charter is a rather weighty document for us. It is enough for us to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence and demand the same from the international community.”

Zohrabyan also noted that Armenia made it clear in Astana it is not going to yield Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan and will, if necessary, recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence.