YEREVAN, JULY 11, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Parliament Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov says the Armenian President’s speech at the meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the NATO member and non-member states sent a number of clear messages to the international community. In particular, Serzh Sargsyan emphasized that the Armenian sides are exclusively in favor of peace.

“The President’s speech clearly emphasized that both the Republic of Armenia, and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic are in support of the lasting peace, we should prepare our society to peace, rather than to war. The Armenian sides are not the threats of war in the region, rather Azerbaijan remains the threat of war, I will add Turkey as well”, “Armenpress” reports, Sharmazanov said to journalists.

He said the Armenian President with his speech highlighted that both NATO, and any other international platform are not the place of discussion of Nagorno Karabakh, there is a concrete structure for it. “Contrary to Ilham Aliyev’s statements and the assessments by the Azerbaijani media, the Armenian President clearly stated that NATO is not the platform for the discussion of the Nagorno Karabakh issue, a concrete structure exists for that. To transform the Nagorno Karabakh settlement issue to other platforms including the PACE, NATO, are unacceptable and contradict to the numerous statements of the Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries”, Sharmazanov said.

Sharmazanov said the Armenian President highlighted that the agreements reached in the Vienna and St. Petersburg meetings must be implemented which are constantly not being done by Azerbaijan. “Azerbaijan must install trust, investigative mechanisms, the rights of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office must be expanded”, he said adding that there has been a talk also over the 1994-1995 termless ceasefire agreements.

Eduard Sharmazanov also stated that the Armenian President directly said the status quo is not beneficial for us. Serzh Sargsyan clearly emphasized that no one can reject the right to self-determination of the NKR people. “The NKR people must shape their own fate. The main obstacle of this is Azerbaijan which rejects the NKR people’s right to self-determination. We think that the status quo should be changed, but for that it is necessary to recognize the NKR people’s right to self-determination. There is a need to eliminate the reasons, not the consequences of this conflict”, the Deputy Parliament Speaker said.