There is nothing mentioned about merely negotiations in the statement by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. All the points are targeted at the creation of an atmosphere in which the parties will be able to negotiate. This is what Deputy of the My Step faction of the National Assembly Hovhannes Igityan told journalists at the National Assembly on 13 March, adding that the approaches are not directly linked to the negotiation process.

“The parties will have the chance to express their views around the negotiating table. Today the Co-Chairs state, and we, as parties, must agree on the steps to be taken in order to restore the atmosphere that was disturbed during the Four-Day Artsakh War. The statement clearly states what must be done,” he said.

He noted that Armenia has responded to Azerbaijan’s military drills. “However, this doesn’t mean that Armenia is setting a condition. Even the statement of the Co-Chairs states that no statement should stand in the parties’ way of sitting around the negotiating table. Azerbaijan’s military drills sharply contradict the agreements of the OSCE Minsk Group in Vienna and Saint Petersburg, but even this isn’t an obstacle for us because we ready to negotiate.”

Igityan mentioned that the joint session of the National Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh were not a response to Azerbaijan’s military drills or the Co-Chairs’ statement since the session was so logical that he doesn’t understand why there hadn’t been such sessions in the past.