Armenia given opportunity to emphasize its priorities-Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan

Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan, Armenian political analyst, in an interview with Tert.am said he thinks that the president’s message regarding regional developments clearly expressed his evaluation of Azerbaijan and Turkey, and the criticism against those countries for rejecting the international efforts towards reaching peace over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), Commenting on the president’s speech, addressing the constitutional amendments and their expected outcomes.

“The official Yerevan has considered three principles of conflict settlement [territorial integrity, self-determination and non-use of force] to date, not wishing to hamper the negotiation process.

“Realizing this, Azerbaijan has done its utmost over the past two years to torpedo the negotiation process and to reshape its format. And that actually, has made the matters worse for Baku around the negotiating table.

“Today, the Armenian side has been given a good chance to clearly emphasize its priorities, and that was practically what Serzh Sargsyan did in his statement yesterday.

Yes, the international recognition of the Armenians in Artsakh remains the key issue. Everything else is secondary to that,” the analyst said.