The priority for the Armenian side in the Karabakh peace process is the Artsakh people's right to self-determination, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov said at a press conference in Yerevan on July 11.
"The Azerbaijani leadership speaks much about the unacceptability of the status quo in the Karabakh peace process. To change the status quo, only one condition should be fulfilled - it is necessary to recognize the Karabakh people's right to self-determination," he said.
He said that the Armenian President's speech at the NATO summit in Warsaw had several key aspects. Particularly, the statement stressed that NATO is not the platform to discuss the Karabakh problem. "There is an internationally recognized format of the talks, namely, the OSCE Minsk Group, which is to resolve the problem, and any attempts to take the problem out of that format are unacceptable, because there is no alternative to it. Another important message in the President's statement at the summit was that the arrangements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg should be strictly implemented. It is known that Azerbaijan attempted to take a step back and quit the item on introduction of the investigative mechanism. But all these items must be implemented, like the 1994-95 ceasefire agreements, which must also be observed", Sharmazanov said.
As regards the Armenian President's telephone conversations with the leaders of Russia and the United States, the Vice Speaker takes a positive view of them. "The text, which was presented to us, clearly implies that Russia and the United States are unanimous that the Karabakh conflict should be resolved peacefully, through negotiations, and the Vienna and St. Petersburg arrangements should be carried out. The Karabakh ptoblem is probably the only issue, in which Russia and the U.S. have no discrepancies", Sharmazanov said.