Armenia ex-President Serzh Sargsyan: Azerbaijan proposal for bilateral talks cannot be accepted

I do not think that Armenia has accepted Azerbaijan’s proposal for bilateral negotiations. Anyway, the statement by the MFA was a bit confusing; they neither said “we accept” nor said “we don’t accept,” because they need to think [about it]. Serzh Sargsyan, the third President of Armenia, told this to reporters in front of a Yerevan court Friday.

“Of course, the proposal [by Azerbaijan] of bilateral negotiations cannot be accepted. I want to remind that today’s ruler of Armenia, who wanted to criticize or ‘sting’ me when he said, ‘Look, look, he says that he did not negotiate with [Azerbaijani president] Aliyev, but I am negotiating,’ we saw what those negotiations led to.

“The issue is not whether the person in front of you is pleasant or unpleasant as a negotiator. The issue is that the result of that negotiation should be guaranteed by some other power, a powerful country. If it will not be guaranteed, then who needs that paper? Either party may breach these agreements. It is no coincidence that the three powerful countries of the world were the co-chairs in our negotiations on the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] issue. I am convinced that the bilateral negotiations [with Azerbaijan] will lead to a dead end; and if it takes place, then with big concessions that do not promise us any future,” said the third president of Armenia.