Armenian president says satisfied with results of his meeting with Azerbaijani counterpart

YEREVAN, May 17. /TASS/. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said on Tuesday he is satisfied with the results of his Monday’s meeting in Vienna with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev that was dedicated to the problems of Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

"In general, I and my colleagues are satisfied with the results of the meeting," Sargsyan told journalists who accompanied him of his flight from Vienna. "Our task at the meeting was to see whether the settlement talks have really reached a dead end and there is no other way out than warfare or whether we can still solve the problem without much pain. It is important that the Minsk Group co-chair make sure that our goal is not in preserving the status quo and bogging down in the endless warfare."

Sargsyan said that the Azerbaijani president had pledged that neither he nor his country seek to solve the problem by military means. "It is good but is barely credible as we have heard it many times but is fact the agreements have not been observed for many years," he said.

"Our goal is to solve the problems peacefully and through talks," the Armenian leader underscored. "Warfare is not by far the best solution. In any case, we are ready for any outcome but we want it to be a peaceful outcome."

If the Azerbaijani side "violates its promises and violates the truce, we will have no other way than to give a proportional answer," Sargsyan warned. "No answer may entail bigger truce violations." He said he hopes the number of violations will finally subside and the situation "will be calmer than now."

According to the Armenian president, participants in the meeting agreed that it would be right to arrange for another meeting between the two countries’ president after a while. "As far as it is planned to create a system of monitoring ceasefire violations at the line of engagement we suggested such monitoring be established before another meeting of the presidents," he said. "It would be a constructive approach of the parties."

The situation along the contact line of conflicting sides in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan, deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2 when fierce clashes began. The parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. At a meeting of chiefs of General Staff of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow an agreement was reached on the ceasefire from noon local time (0800GMT) on April 5. Since then, the sides have reported ceasefire violations along the contact line.

The participants of talks on Nagorno-Karabakh in Vienna on Monday involving the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia and mediated by the foreign ministers from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries (Russia, the United States and France) agreed to observe ceasefire in the region in compliance with the 1994-1995 accords. The parties to the conflict also agreed to complete as soon as possible the work on an OSCE tool on investigating incidents on the contact line.