Negotiations on Karabakh are held within the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair states, all of them issued statements, resolutions and decisions during  those three years that are in line with  Armenia’s position, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in an interview with Russia Today.

“It is about 3 principles and 6 main elements on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. The negotiations are currently conducted on the basis of the Madrid proposals that were presented to the sides back in November 2007. The six major principles were picked from the Madrid proposals and voiced in the statements of Presidents Medvedev, Obama and Sarkozy on Nagorno-Karabakh in L’Aquila and Muskoka in the frameworks of the G8 Summits. What are the international community, international mediators, Armenia and Azerbaijan saying? The international community through the mediators is saying that that the issue should be settled on the basis of the three principles and six elements,” he stressed.

There are the principles of non-use of force or threat of force, right to self-determination and territorial integrity.

“The international community is saying that the parties are to conduct negotiations based on those principles to reach settlement. And it is underlined that those 3 principles and 6 elements have been conceived and proposed as an integrated whole, and it is unacceptable to select some elements or principles over the others,” he said, adding that Armenia fully shares world community’s approach that the principles are conceived as an integrated whole. 

“And what is Azerbaijan saying? Azerbaijan is saying that they accept only one principle out of the three, as for the six elements they are saying that they will be ready to hold a discussion on the five other elements after the implementation of one of them. With regard to this, at the OSCE Summit in Astana the US Secretary of State, on behalf of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs stated, once again reminding that those principles and elements have been conceived  as an integrated whole ,it is a package. And we should move forwards towards the settlement of the issue on the basis of it,” Nalbandian stressed.

“In those elements, proposed by Russia, the United States and France it is mentioned that the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh should be decided by the Nagorno-Karabakh people through free expression of will that should have a legally binding force. And before that final decision, Nagorno-Karabakh should have an interim status. What does the interim status mean? Saying interim status, it is supposed that the final status has not yet been defined. And it is one of the main elements proposed by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group as a basis for the settlement,” Armenian FM said.