Those who demand the return of Shahumyan, Martunashen and Getashen regions, but not Kars, are minor patriots, a political scientist Stepan Grigoryan stated at the July 8 meeting with the reporters, commenting on whether the return of territories should be included in the Karabakh peaceful agreement. According to him, to date the return of territories has not yet been on the agenda. If these issues are raised, the negotiation process should be launched from zero. “Armenia’s raising new questions at the negotiating table means to start talks from scratch. It will increase the tension in the region,” he said. The expert noted the Karabakh conflict should be settled through concessions. Asked what particular concessions should be made, Grigoryan replied: “For instance, I will cede one of the villages in Fizuli region on condition that both Azerbaijani and Armenian families should return to this territory.” According to him, Armenia should try to break the frozen state of the peace process. Armenia should come forward with initiative positions and declare that is ready to discuss any proposal for the Karabakh conflict.

Referring to the Armenia-Turkey relations, Grigoryan noted the relations will be normalized in the near future. “The reconciliation with Armenian is beneficial to Turkey, and this country sooner or later will open the border with Armenia. A country, which turned back on U.S., deteriorated relations with Israel, has a Kurdish issue, cannot but establish relations with Armenia and be hostile towards everybody. He stressed Armenia benefited from the Armenia-Turkey process. The country’s image was improved and the international community’s interest in Armenia as a transit country grew. Grigoryan hailed positive the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement on Armenia-Turkey normalization. According to him, U.S. shifted the responsibility for the failure onto Turkey.

According to Grigoryan, even today Armenia should be ready to ratify the Protocols first.