Russia hints at holding the key to Karabakh conflict resolution: ex-Foreign Minister

Armenia’s ex-Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanyan hails Zharangutyun (Heritage) Party’s recent initiative to introduce a draft law on Karabakh recognition to parliament.

“This is a message to the international community. But recognizing NKR now may negatively affect the [OSCE] Minsk Group process. It was more reasonable to maintain the issue on the agenda,” he told a news conference on Wednesday.

At that, he noted that the recent trilateral meeting between Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian presidents in Astrakhan was quite expected.

“Russia may prolong the agreement on deploying military base whenever it wishes so,” he said, adding at the same time that the country currently plays a major role on the international arena, hinting that it holds the key to the resolution of Karabakh conflict.

Mr Arzumanyan does not anticipate any progress of the upcoming meeting in Astana as he believes the moment for conflict resolution has not matured.

“The parties will restrict themselves to general statements, reiterating the principles of the Minsk process and hailing the co-chairs in their efforts. What we have on the table now are the Madrid principles, which are acceptable neither for Armenia, nor for Karabakh, nor for Azerbaijan” said he.