ArmInfo. The settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict should be based on the recognition of the fact that the people of Artsakh exercise their right to self-determination. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the candidate for presidency of Artsakh, Masis Mayilyan, stated this in an interview with the Armenian service of the Radio Liberty.
According to him, this right of the people of Artsakh has already been realized. This realization should be based on the fact that the Republic of Artsakh has been established and the entire negotiation process should be based on the recognition of this fact, because this is the essence of the conflict.
Responding to talks about the possibility of "surrendering territories," the Foreign Minister emphasized that the current authorities of Armenia are probably the only authorities who do not speak about surrendering territories at all. "This is ridiculous, and is just a topic for internal speculation. But I'll present my position as the head of the Foreign Ministry and a likely presidential candidate. If they talk about some lands or about communities, then this is an attempt to distort the essence of this conflict, which can lead to completely other processes, other results. I know that there is no document on the table and no substantive negotiations are ongoing. Work is underway to create an environment, they are discussing, and as a result of these discussions an event was organized when journalists from Artsakh and the Republics Armenia visited Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijani journalists visited Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia. It is about the so called confidence strengthening steps, "Mayilyan noted, adding that the visit of journalists was organized directly by three countries - Artsakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan through the personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.
"One of the new ideas, which has not yet been implemented, is to organize visit of relatives of saboteurs who are serving their sentence in Artsakh, as well as visits of relatives of Armenian hostages in Azerbaijan," the head of the Foreign Ministry said. He added that negotiations are underway and the official Stepanakert has already agreed to this.
Masis Mayilyan also noted that there are ideas, for example, that during harvesting the parties should be more careful, and do not hinder with the peasants to collect their crops. "Such steps should be taken to create this environment, the risks should be reduced. After Dushanbe, the ceasefire is generally respected, and over the past year the parties manage to maintain a fairly more stable situation than in previous years, this is also a fact. This will all contribute to the formation of an environment that will allow us to gradually switch to meaningful negotiations, during which the presence of Artsakh and the restoration of this format will have key importance, "the Foreign Minister of Artsakh concluded.