US must join Russian and French efforts to demand peace on Karabakh - deputy FM

A major issue dominating all the three mediators' agenda deals with the maintenance, as well as observance of ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict zone, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said today, commenting on FM Zohrab Mnatsakanyan's upcoming meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

"[That meeting] is very important in the sense that Russia appears to be more active among the three co-chairs. And so is France, as they made the second attempt to push ahead with declaring ceasefire. It is now important for the United States to join [the peace efforts]. What we virtually need is the realization that we have one single issue on the agenda, i.e. - the declaration but also maintenance of ceasefire by all the three co-chairs," he told reporters at the National Assembly.

Commenting on the UN Security Council's closed-door meeting on the issue, Kocharyan noted that its timing was carefully planned to strengthen the guarantees of future truce.

"The discussion was devoted to that, i.e. - guaranteeing [a ceasefire]," he said, stressing the co-chairs' mandates to promote a compromise-based solution and to prevent, in the capacity of permanent Council members, the resumption of hostilities.

"This should come as an alarm to them," Kocharyan added.

Addressing the past days' protest actions outside foreign embassies and different international organizations in Yerevan, the deputy minister highlighted Armenia's overall dissatisfaction with the international reaction.

"First, the reactions vary in type. What essentially matters is the clarity of our position. There are certainly points which do not quite satisfy us. It isn't allowed to treat the Artsakh Republic as a territory which isn't recognized and whose people cannot exercise elementary human rights. It isn't allowed to differentiate people based on the subject they are resident in; that's obvious," he noted.

Kocharyan said he is under the impression that the reaction by different international organizations and other states is determined right on the battlefield. "For the Armenian side, every single day is painful - as it [costs] lives - but on the other hand, we need the realization that it is first of all a duty when it comes to one's own security defense. Anyone who relies on the foreign [powers] to come and lend a helping hand is doomed. We must win our battle very resolutely to later see the kind of respect with which all the international organizations will treat us," the deputy minister added.