Current processes over Karabakh 'focused on deepening of confidence-building measures' – lawmaker

Armenia's major concern in the current phase of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) peace process is focused on the deepening of confidence--building measures, according to Tatev Hayrapetyan, an expert in Azerbaijani studies and a lawmaker of the ruling political bloc My Step.

At a news conference on Saturday, she shared her expectations of the upcoming Armenian-Azerbaijani ministerial summit, condemning the Azerbaijani leader's belligerent rhetoric voiced after the recent meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.  

''Armenia keeps insisting on Karabakh's return [to the negotiations]; it's all about the deepening of mutual confidence-building mechanisms, a topic which the prime minister addressed also in Vienna at his meeting with the Armenian community,'' she said, considering Azerbaijan's somewhat intolerant attitude absolutely logical in the current circumstamces.  

Asked whether the negotiations are centered around the 2007 Madrid Principles and its the six elements or another document is being negotiated, Hayrapetyan said she isn't aware of any new agenda being developed or considered now. ''The main talks and the agenda, which we are trying to push forward, deal with the creation of a [peacebuilding] atmosphere. We need to be honest enough to understand that no proposed package is likely to work under the conditions of such hatred and hostility. If a peaceful and compromise-based settlement is what we are speaking of, with Azerbaijan being absolutely unprepared for a settlement, everything else loses its sense in a way ... Armenia said it would consider compromises should Azerbaijan ever address the topic openly, but Azerbaijan never does, sticking to its belligerent rhetoric".   

 Armenia's main task in the current negotiations is to make Azerbaijan respect the ceasefire regime and reduce the frontline casualties and sniper attacks, etc, Hayrapetyan added, stressing also the importance of different humanitarian initiatives aiming ''to heal the atmosphere".  

 Asked whether Ilham Aliyev's rhetoric threatens to lead the process to a deadlock, the lawmaker ruled out such a possibility. She said that the Azerbaijani president's recent speech, made at a meeting with special detachment officers, was ''aimed largely at delivering a heavy blow'' to the country's political opposition.