Yerevan, Baku differ in approaches towards Karabakh problem - Armenian Foreign Ministry
YEREVAN. Dec 19 (Interfax) - The issues that were raised at the meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan concerned the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan has said.
"The agenda of the meeting was dictated by the escalation of the situation as a result of provocations by Azerbaijan, gross breaches of the truce. Naturally, with the situation being so acute, all other issues move to the back burner," Nalbandyan told reporters in Bern on Saturday.
Azerbaijan cannot free itself "from the illusion of solving the problem by force," he said.
"It is with such actions that Baku is trying to compensate for its lack of confidence at talks," Nalbandyan said.
Armenia calls for the negotiating process to continue, otherwise no peaceful solution will be reached, he said.
"Unfortunately, we confirm that the parties' approaches are neither close, nor coincide. Nor does Azerbaijan's position coincide with that of the co-chairs of the OSCE MG [the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] and their proposals," the minister said.
At the same time, he pointed to the importance of talks between the two countries' presidents because that way it will be possible to gradually advance the process of developing mechanisms for reducing tensions.
"There is no alternative to talks," Nalbandyan said.