President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Bako Sahakyan held a meeting today with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, Robert Bradtke (USA), Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia) and Bernard Fassier (France), as well as their enrourage. The Information Department, NKR Preidential Staff, reported that President Sahakyan congratulated Robert Bradtke on his appointment nd wished him effective activities. The sides discussed a wide range of issues related to the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict and regional processes.

The NKR leader once more stressed the importance of resuming a full-scale negotiating process. In this context he pointed out the impossibility of any settlement without the NKR’s full involvement in the negotiations.

President Sahakyan pointed out that the necessity for “looking ahead instead of looking back.” The NKR leader said that any attempt to force Nagorno-Karabakh return to the 1988 status is pregnant with unpredictable consequences and a final deadlock in the process.

The NKR President also pointed out the necessity for intensifying efforts to establish mutual confidence between the two societies, as the parties’ willingness to settle disputes by means of negiotiations is a necessary condition for the settlement of the conflict. “It is inadmissible to anticipate the developments,” Sahakyan said. The NKR president stressed that Azerbaijan’s aggressive policy is one of the major impediments to the peace process.

Speaking of the Armenian-Turkish relations, President Sahakyan pointed out that the normalization process has nothing in common with the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. In this context, the NKR leader welcomed a similar statement made by the OSCE MG Co-Chairs. The sides also discussed ths situation on the contact line between the Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaiani armed forces.

Attending the meeting were NKR Foreign Minister Georgy Petrosyan and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.