YEREVAN. – In the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process, Artsakh’s status and security matters—around which negotiations are in progress—are priority for Armenia, Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on Monday told reporters.

In his words, the Armenian party to the Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict pays attention to all the circumstances relating to a climate that contributes to peace.

Mnatsakanyan assured that in the negotiation process, they have not deviated from what they have been speaking about in public.

“We have stressed all those fundamental precepts which are about [the conflict’s] solely a pacific settlement, [and] solely within the framework of the three co-chairmanship of the [OSCE] Minsk Group,” he said, in particular. “The most important [thing] that we have said [is] that the [Artsakh] status and security matters remain supreme for Armenia; the negotiations are going on around this.”

“We haven’t been and will not be defeatist,” Mnatsakanyan also stressed.

He noted that the matter of Karabakh’s engagement in the peace talks also was discussed at the meetings.

“For us, this is a very specific practical issue, so that the progress be more practical and realistic in the negotiation process,” the Armenian FM added.

In terms of the part—in the recent statement by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs—with respect to preparing the Armenian and Azerbaijani people for peace, the minister noted that there was such a provision in previous statements, too, and that the UN Secretary-General’s response is not new either; and by doing so, he wants to support the results achieved, or the statements made, in the format of the Minsk Group co-chairs.

“We work for peace, and our [respective] determination should not be questioned,” the FM added. “There is no alternative to peace; the alternative to peace is catastrophe.”

Also, he assured that they do everything openly and transparently.

To the remark that the Armenian PM and the Azerbaijani president have already met for the third time without participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and asked whether this deviates from the format, Mnatsakanyan noted that the three meetings were impromptu.

“It’s a very positive thing because it facilitates and creates the opportunity for sensing each other better and working more productively on these matters,” he said, in particular.

The FM, however, disagreed that the peace talks have met an impasse. He stressed that the Armenian party has not abandoned the arrangements that were made in Vienna and Saint Petersburg, and that, furthermore, the arrangements reached in Dushanbe have been added to them.

“We have achieved so that we have less risks, calmness at the [Artsakh-Azerbaijan] line of contact and the [Armenia-Azerbaijan] border,” Zohrab Mnatsakanyan concluded. “Risk reduction was important to us (…). We were able to work a mechanism that is favorable in terms of risk reduction.”