"There is not and cannot be an international mechanism for Karabakh," Hikmet Hajiyev, head of the foreign policy department of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, said in response to an interview with Armen Grigoryan, secretary of the Armenian Security Council.

According to him, the talks held in Washington and elsewhere "adhered to the Brussels agenda and dealt exclusively with issues of a peaceful settlement." "In Washington, it was decided that negotiations should be conducted with a specific time frame for the conclusion of a peace treaty. In this regard, the very draft of the peace treaty was presented in advance at the meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Geneva. I emphasize that the draft included the standard provisions contained in such agreements on the normalization of relations between the two countries. In particular, the peace treaty implies mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, etc."

"Both at the talks in Brussels and in Washington, representatives of Azerbaijan emphasized that Baku will not discuss issues related to the sovereign rights of our country with any third party. The issue of the rights and security of Karabakh Armenians will be resolved in accordance with the Constitution of Azerbaijan... In Washington, our delegation stated that Azerbaijan, in accordance with its international obligations, regularly submits various reports to the UN and other organizations. These reports reflect information regarding the Azerbaijani government's activities, aimed, for example, at ensuring the rights of national minorities. In the future, these reports will include actions aimed at ensuring the rights of Armenian residents living in Karabakh.

In other words, there is and can be no question of creating any international "mechanism" set up to control the rights and security of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan," he said.

Armen Grigoryan said that the main agenda on the Karabakh issue was "how we can create an international mechanism for Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan to discuss the security and rights of Karabakh Armenians."  "We hope that in the process we can form this international mechanism so that there is an opportunity for discussions between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan about rights and security."