Stepanakert's viewpoint to be taken into account?
NKR President Bako Sahayan arrived in Yerevan today to meet with OSCE acting chairman, Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev.
Participating in the meeting held at "Golden Palace" hotel was NKR Foreign Minister Georgi Petrosyan. After the private talks held for nearly half an hour, Bako Sahakyan responded to journalists' questions. He first mentioned that he had proposed to introduce a new direction in the negotiations process.
"Azerbaijan has brought up the topic of territorial integrity and mainly discusses that. I proposed to the OSCE chairman to move the issue of territorial integrity to the level of international level. This will provide the opportunity to register results in the negotiations and finally approach the final settlement of the conflict," said Bako Sahakyan.
As far as the updated version of the Madrid Principles is concerned, according to the NKR President, although NKR has not received the version from the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the other documents have not been put into circulation at all, they are well aware of the content of the new points.
"During the stages of discussion of those documents, there is a need for the participation of the NKR. I think it is impossible to continue to develop and discuss those documents without Artsakh's participation," said the NKR President.
Sahakyan also added that Kanat Saudabayev promised to take into account Stepanakert's viewpoint and take steps toward giving Artsakh the opportunity to participate in the talks again.
Bako Sahakyan viewed Azerbaijan's current bellicose stance as new form of terrorism and mentioned that he saw the OSCE as the structure that will use certain levers and make Azerbaijan constructive. During the Sahakyan-Saudabayev meeting, the sides stressed the fact that members of many notable international organizations and OSCE representatives don't visit Karabakh during their regional visits.
"They come to the region without getting acquainted with the main party, the country, its structures and the people. This approach can't be productive for the settlement," underscored the NKR President.
As far as the Turkish-Armenian diplomatic relations are concerned, Bako Sahakyan reaffirmed that Karabakh has not been and will not be a linkage to the normalization of relations.
