OSCE Minsk Group's working plan covers also meetings with member states' leaders – Zohrab Mnatsakanyan

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have their own working plan which covers also meetings with member states' leaders and international organizations, FM Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said  today, addressing the recently held talks with the Turkey's foreign minister.

″It's not the first meeting; that's a normal regular work, so we do not have any concerns when it comes to the co-chairs in question. The only difference was probably the subsequent comments by Turkey. To be frank, though, they did not contain any remark that we hadn’t ever heard before,″ he told the parliament members.

The statement came in response to Taron Simonyan of the opposition Bright Armenia party, who sought the minister’s comments on the agenda of the talks and the possible steps to be undertaken in that connection.

Mnatsakanyan said that they fully trust the mission, knowing very well about the plan and the approaches guiding their work.

He also reiterated the Foreign Ministry's firm stance ruling out Turkey's engagement in the proccess.

Evaluating the remark as a ″diplomatic response″, the opposition lawmaker called the minister's attention to the regional developments which he said "revealed Turkey's foreign policy priorities". ″I would share your kind of calm attitude if not the heated regional developments that underlied the context of the meeting, outlining Turkey’s foreign policy guidelines,″ he said, calling for efforts by the Foreign Ministry to counteract to the country's ambitions towarsds Karabakh.

Mnatsakanyan noted that his response was ″not only diplomatic but also clear-worded”. ″If you are expecting me to shout loudly while one of the sides is raising the problem, that's not going to happen. Repeating myself, I have to state again that Turkey cannot possibly have any role in the Nagorn-Karabakh peace settlement process. If you expect me to say it in a more emotional manner, I am not going to do that,″ he added.  

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