Presidents of Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan meet in Saint Petersburg

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The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev and the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev held a meeting in Saint Petersburg on the sidelines of the international economic forum.
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The meeting was followed by a working dinner, featuring the Presidents and the Foreign Ministers.

The meeting focused on the “most crucial problems” that prevent the settlement of the conflict, according to Medvedev's press secretary, who spoke to reporters following the talks.

“The sides noted the bridging of their positions on a number of contradictory provisions of the text in the basic principles of the Karabakh conflict settlement,” Natalya Timakova said.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian declared that during the meeting the parties "regorded what had been reached as a result of the talks.”

According to him an agreement was reached to continue the negotiations on that ground. “The Presidents assigned the Foreign Ministers to continue the communication,” the Armenian Foreign Minister stated.

Edward Nalbandian also declared that the Minsk Group Co-Chairs plan to pay a visit to the region early in July.

“The process continues. This meeting was constructive and very useful,” Minister Nalbandian stated.

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What should be expected form Sargsyan-Aliyev-Medvedev meeting in Saint Petersburg? President of the European Integration NGO Karen Bekaryan says it's going to be one of the recurrent meetings. However, against the background of suspension of the Armenian-Turkish normalization process, it means that Turkish efforts are over.

“The Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia will sit at the bargaining table aware that Armenia has nothing to talk about unless the status of Nagorno Karabakh is determined,” Karen Bekaryan told a press conference today. “There is a red line beyond which Armenia has nothing to say,” he stated, adding that this is becoming clear to the international community.

Karen Bekaryan does not believe the meeting in Saint Petersburg is going to bring any breakthrough. According to him, the reduction of the number of meetings in 2010 is connected with the suspension of the process of ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols, since Azerbaijan understood that Karabakh was not included in the Armenian-Turkish process. President of the European Integration NGO is assured that henceforth the negotiations will become more effective.

“Azerbaijan was stiffening its position, since it though it had a powerful brother behind its back. Turkey's exclusion from the process makes the Armenian-Azerbaijani meetings more effective,” he said.

Touching upon the possible concessions, Karen Bekaryan said “any concession is an expression of goodwill, while a country that makes bellicose statements and terrorizes cannot show goodwill.”

“Besides, it's impossible to give territory to a neighbor fearing it could open fire on you from there,” Karen Bekaryan said.

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Public radio of Armenia