If it's not just an act...
"There was a time when the Minsk Group presented all versions for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the Armenian, Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri authorities," former RA Foreign Minister Vahan Papazyan said today during a press conference and went on to say: "Today, the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities are not presented with the document in question and they don't know what Armenia and Azerbaijan are negotiating."
According to Papazyan, there is a way out of this situation if the statements about the need to bring the NKR back to the peace process are not just an act.
"If Karabakh wants to return to the table, there is a legal base, which is the document signed in Budapest in 1994 and Karabakh may demand to return to that format."
ANC central office representative David Shahnazaryan says that if Karabakh wants to take part in the talks, it must declare that it is not represented by the Armenian authorities.
According to Shahnazaryan, "Baku is the one calling the shots, not Yerevan." He goes on to say that today's Armenian authorities can't settle the Karabakh conflict, even if they have a great desire to do so and the delay is only in the interests of Azerbaijan and it is digging a deeper hole for Armenia.
Vahan Papazyan believes that Azerbaijan had to go along with the Madrid principles because they were in its interest, yet they were expecting more.
Vahan Papazyan expresses concerns over the recent active efforts of Turkey. He recalls that Turkey is an OSCE member since 1992, but it has never been this active as now.
"We sometimes hear Armenian officials say that Turkey's involvement in the Karabakh peace process may be useful, yet we can't have this. We have heard this many times from the U.S., the European Union or European countries and Turkey itself, but no Armenian government could announce that Turkey's participation may contribute to the conflict settlement. This goes to show once again how misbalanced our positions are."
The speakers also talked about the impermissible confidentiality in the peace talks. "Diplomacy contains an element of confidentiality, but the main ideology and course is kept secret," said Shahnazaryan. According to Vahan Papazyan, the society doesn't believe in the government and if it trusted the government, it would probably not worry about the behind-the-scenes talks. But one thing that instills faith, according to politician Papazyan, is that they are not getting into details probably due to the "nothing is agreed as long as everything is not agreed" principle.
