Armenian FM: For resolution of conflict it would be productive if Turkey could encourage Azerbaijan to negotiate with Nagorno Karabakh

"For the resolution of the conflict it would be productive if Turkey could encourage Azerbaijan to negotiate with the real party to the conflict, Nagorno Karabakh," says Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan commenting on Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's latest statement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry reports.

To recall, Davutoglu told media earlier that Turkey would like Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold talks in Istanbul. He said that Ankara is leader in the policy of regional conflict management.

"If the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs truly wants to support the settlement of the conflict, Turkey should not attempt to distort the essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, i.e. the realisation of the right to self-determination of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh as a response to which the authorities of Azerbaijan resorted to the policy of ethnic cleansings against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh and to the realisation of a widespread aggression against the self-determined Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. For the resolution of the conflict it would be productive if Turkey could encourage Azerbaijan to negotiate with the real party to the conflict, Nagorno Karabakh. Turkey at least should not continue to support the "everything or nothing" position of Azerbaijan and the attempts to shift the negotiation process away from the Minsk Group format, aimed at failing the efforts of the mediators," Kocharyan says.