In an interview with Euronews on March 20, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan called on Azerbaijan to sign an agreement on non-use of force.
“This would inspire confidence of Azerbaijan’s willingness to resolve the Karabakh conflict peacefully. However, Azerbaijan refused,” former Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group (1992-1996), Ambassador Vladimir Kazimirov said in “What to apply: force or reason” peace of opinion published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
“Azerbaijan’s profound distrust is conditioned by the fear that Armenians will not leave the seized territories or will start imposing conditions. Anyway, Armenian troops will not be withdrawn unless they can exchange the security area for other guarantees for Karabakh. Azerbaijan has been threatening to use force throughout years. It can’t renounce this policy, as this would mean to confess purposelessness of its huge defense expenses. Baku’s agreement to Mr. Sargsyan’s proposal would pave a way for Ankara to ratify protocols on normalization of relations with Armenia,” he said.
He also emphasized that Baku’s aspiration to resume hostilities lead to devaluation of UN Security Council’s resolutions on Karabakh so that it ceased to issue any.
