Ter-Petrosyan: Azerbaijan ready for concessions over Karabakh

Azerbaijan is ready for mutual concessions over Nagorno-Karabakh, with only very few points not yet being fully agreed upon in the negotiation process to achieve a final breakthrough, Armenia’s first president said in an interview with the Public TV Channel.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who is running for parliament as the leading proportional representation candidate of an opposition bloc representing his Armenian National Congress party and the People’s Party of Armenia, said their political team has declared the unsettled Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a top priority in its pre-election platform.

Asked what makes their plan different given that no political force is opposed to mutual concessions in question, Ter-Petrosyan highlighted the international attention to the conflict. “It is important to note, first of all, that I haven’t proposed any settlement plan. Nor have those whose views contradict mine. That plan exists regardless of our will.”

“The problem is not between us and Azerbaijan. It is between us and the world order,” the first president said. “We, Armenia and Azerbaijan, are equal members of the world’s most authoritative organizations, the United Nations and the OSCE. So these organizations rather than we – Armenia, Azerbaijan or Karabakh – have determined the principles of settling this conflict. It’s not an abstract platform but rather a body vested with specific authorities and entrusted with handling this issue.  That’s the OSCE Minsk Group, which has received the United Nations’ ‘blessing’. And all the UN resolutions highlight the OSCE Minsk Group’s authority [to deal with the issue]. But the proposals voiced so far were not raised by either us or Azerbaijan or even Karabakh; they all were those organizations' proposals addressed to us, the conflicting parties. The issue is now specifically worded, so neither my opponents nor I can propose any platform. The settlement plan in question is based on the Madrid Principles so to speak, so our authorities, as well as Azerbaijan, have been ever since negotiating over this.”