Kiro Manoyan: Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents are unlikely to  meet before the end of 2016 

ArmInfo. Kiro Manoyan, Head of the ARFD Bureau's Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office, thinks that the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, will not meet before the end of 2016.   

At today's press conference in Yerevan, Manoyan said that at the  moment the conflicting parties are discussing how to maintain and  strengthen the ceasefire rather than the core of the problem. So, one  should not speak of any constructive steps or progress. "Even if the  foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan meet in December, they  are unlikely to agree on a meeting of the Presidents before the end  of this year," Manoyan stressed. He thinks France will initiate the  next meeting, because Paris has repeatedly expressed its willingness  to organize it. 

He added that the issue of the NKR status has been discussed for many  years. Since 2007, the mediators have been saying that the conflict  can only be settled by means of a referendum. "The problem is that  the conflicting parties take different views of Artsakh's borders,"  he said.   

Manoyan thinks that the possibility of resumption of large-scale  military actions in the NKR is low.  However, he said, Baku will  continue its provocations along the line of contact. "The Armenian  party has already stated that it will give an adequate response. This  may result in escalation, but not war," he stressed.      To note, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and OSCE CiO Personal  Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk will discuss with the Armenian and  Azerbaijani foreign ministers the possibility of the Armenian and  Azerbaijani presidents' meeting on the sidelines of the OSCE  Ministerial in Hamburg in December 2016.  

To recall, on June 20 2016, the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and  Russia met in Saint Petersburg at the behest of Vladimir Putin.   Reaching a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was the  subject of discussion at the meeting, which took place behind closed  doors.  Following the consultations, the presidents of Russia,  Armenia and Azerbaijan adopted a joint statement reaffirming their  commitment to normalizing the situation on the line of contact and  giving their approval to an increase in the number of OSCE observers  working in the conflict zone. The joint statement also expresses the  parties' commitment to putting in place the conditions required for  steady progress in negotiations on a political settlement to the  conflict.  The presidents made a point of their regular contacts on  Karabakh and agree to continue them in such format as addition to the  efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs who were invited to the  final stage of the meeting in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani  President Ilham Aliyev said that the investigative mechanisms at the  present stage of the settlement are irrelevant and the issue can be  discussed after "withdrawal of Armenian troops from the NKR". He also  stressed that the Office of the OSCE CiO Personal Representative can  be expanded by no more than 12-13 people.