Visiting Austrian President Heinz Fischer today declared in Yerevan that the Karabakh issue cannot be solved through force and violence.

President Fischer made the statement at a joint press conference with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan after the two leaders met at the RA Presidential Palace.

“We see no alternative to the peaceful talks within the scope of the OSCE Minsk Group,” President Sargsyan said, adding that “Azerbaijan’s recent bellicose statements create tension both at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan and at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.”

“The provocations of the past weeks have claimed the lives of servicemen, and the situation remains tense,” the Armenian president noted.

President Sargsyan recalled the Los Cabos statement issued by the presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, urging  the parties to maintain the ceasefire regime and underlining that the conflict should be settled on the basis of the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, namely non-use of force or the threat of force, the right of peoples to self-determination and territorial integrity. 

“We are ready to move forward on the basis of those principles, and the sooner the issue is settled, the better. The rapid resolution of the issue stems from the interests of the peoples of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. I think the international community has had an opportunity to get convinced of this,” the President stated. 

“While formally agreeing to the three above-mentioned principles, Azerbaijan actually only accepts one of them – territorial integrity, rejecting the principles of the right of peoples to self-determination and the peaceful settlement of conflicts,” Serzh Sargsyan said, emphasizing that the conflict will be solved only when the parties are ready to accept all of the above-mentioned principles.