Deputy Foreign Minister: What the mediators offer is not something the Armenian side has dreamed about - Yerevan perceives the idea of postponed referendum with reserve

What the mediators offer concerning the Karabakh conflict's resolution is not something the Armenian side has dreamed about, but these proposals are based on a consensus. Shavarsh Kocharyan, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, made such statement talking to journalists on April 21.  

He said the Kazan and Madrid documents are in the basis of the peace process, but there is no final document on the negotiating table at the given stage. 

At the same time, Kocharyan said that Armenia's official; stand on the peace process remains unchanged, but at the given stage, Armenia perceives with reserve the idea of the postponed referendum that underlay the Kazan and Madrid documents. In his words, it was strange for Yerevan at the time that the mediators offered one more plebiscite after the referendum of Nagorno-Karabakh's independence. However, he said, the mediators explained that Baku needed time to prepare its public for the inevitability of NKR's independence. "Meantime, it turned out over time that Baku does not need such concessions. Quite the contrary, it has just militarized the conflict. This makes Armenia hold talks on the basis of other approaches," Kocharyan said without explaining whether he meant refusal from the idea of postponed referendum. 

Earlier touching upon Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement that all the components of the agreement on Karabakh settlement are on the table and the sides are very close to the settlement Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tigran Balayan said that the Kazan document proposed to the parties in 2011 is currently on the negotiating table. "Azerbaijan is reluctant to accept it despite the fact that it was agreed with Baku in advance. We have repeatedly spoken about it. During a meeting in Kazan, Ilham Aliyev made 10 new proposals and actually failed the agreement of the conflict resolution principles," Tigran Balayan said.  

To recall, the Kazan document consists of 14 provisions. It implies determination of the final status of Karabakh, as well as return of the territories surrounding Karabakh to Azerbaijan with the corridor linking Karabakh to Armenia.  Other principles concern the return of both sides' refugees to their former residence places, an interim status ensuring the security and self-government of Karabakh, as well as international security guarantees to ensure the implementation of the agreement.