ArmInfo. Novruz Mammadov, Deputy Head of Azerbaijan's Presidential Administration, chief of the Administration's Foreign Relations Department, is surprised and aggrieved with the statement of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry saying that the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are not ready yet to settle the Karabakh conflict.
"John Kerry, the state secretary of the world's superpower US, sends a message to the world that allegedly, the leaders are not ready for the conflict's settlement," he said. "Which logical option the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have proposed [for the conflict's settlement] that Azerbaijan hasn't agreed to?"
"Why Azerbaijan's seven districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh are not liberated? Which steps were taken by these major states to liberate these seven districts which were populated by hundreds of thousands of people?" asked Mammadov. "Presidents of the three co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group also expressed the need to change the status quo," Mammadov said. "Taking these all into account, they could have uttered a sentence regarding the return of the seven districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. In that case, they would have the right to say the parties are not ready for the settlement of the conflict," he noted.
Mammadov added that Azerbaijan doesn't agree with John Kerry's statement and would like to see any US state structure to clarify that statement.
Over the past years, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have found the following solution: Azerbaijan and Armenia should come to an agreement by themselves, the top official added. "This is a proof of the unfair and double standard attitude towards Azerbaijan. Armenia states that Azerbaijan is not ready for compromises. Yerevan means that Nagorno-Karabakh should be fully given to Armenia. Kerry's statement is more similar to this position of Armenia," said Mammadov. To recall, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently said in Washington that no favorable conditions have been created yet for settlement of the Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. He thinks the resolution of the problem is impossible now first of all because the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia are not prepared for it.