Sarkisian Says Karabakh Conflict Resolution Agreements Must be Implemented

MOSCOW (Combined Sources) — Armenia’s president Serzh Sarkisian thanked today Russia for its involvement in diplomatic efforts to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as he met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow, TASS reported.

Sarkisian was quoted by TASS as saying that it was important for the parties to the conflict to abide by the agreements reached earlier on this issue.

“I want to express my gratitude to the Russian side for the decisions taken by Russia in the diplomatic resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict”, he said.

Vladimir Putin for his part said that Russia will continue to press for a peaceful resolution of the conflict during a joint  news conference with Sarkisian, “We will continue to provide the utmost support to the search for ways of untying the ‘Karabakh knot’ within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group as well as during direct contacts with Yerevan and Baku.”

“We hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan will manage to reach a compromise settlement — without winners or losers — of existing differences,” he said.

Putin said that he and Sarkisian paid “serious attention” to the Karabakh issue at their talks, including through the prism of the most recent meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents which the Russian leader hosted in Saint Petersburg on June 20.

Putin, who also met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday, insisted that both Armenia and Azerbaijan are committed to a compromise settlement but would not say whether it can be achieved in the coming months.

Putin did not confirm the Azerbaijani claims, implying that they only reflect Armenian concessions that are sought by Baku. He also said in that regard: “I think that both Armenia and Azerbaijan really want to find a way out of the problem in order to live in peace, cooperate and develop the economy.”

In particular, he said, a Karabakh peace would lead to economic betterment in Armenia and thereby “strengthen Armenian statehood.”

“But we need to find the kind of approaches and formulas that would not leave anybody thinking that they have lost or won, a solution that would be worked out by Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders and accepted by the publics in both countries,” Putin went on. Russia and other mediating powers are ready to act as “guarantors” of such an accord, he added.

Sarkisian stressed that an Armenian-Azerbaijan peace accord can only be based on the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination. “This is what I discussed with the president of the Russian Federation in detail today,” he said.

Neither Putin nor Sarkisian publicly commented on the possibility of organizing another Armenian-Azerbaijani summit which the mediators hope would result in further progress in the Karabakh peace process. French President Francois Hollande reportedly offered to host it in Paris shortly after the Saint Petersburg meeting.