* Mevlut Cavusoglu
"The subcommittee has not yet been established, but it is expected that I will be its chairman, Cavusoglu told journalists in Baku. It is a quite normal practice that a subcommittee is headed by the chairman of PACE. Former chairman of the subcommittee was also chairman of PACE."
"We want the subcommittee to be attended by the Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations, and hope that its work will contribute to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict," said Cavusoglu.
The President added that he intended to do his best to avoid “double standards” in the way member states were treated: “We have common standards that apply equally to everyone: we are in favour of democracy and human rights.”
* Ilham Aliyev
At yesterday's government session Aliyev claimed that at the current turning point all the countries, particularly Minsk Group co-chair countries, should be very keen.
“But we see that today in critical moment Armenia is given such political support that in the future it can refuse at all from negotiations,” the President said.
Simultaneously he indicated that Armenia should state its position.
“Armenia is dragging out negotiations artificially and in different ways wants to lay the blame for failure of talks on Azerbaijan. They believe that with time the status quo will strengthen and in 10-20 years there will be created more favorable conditions for legitimization of Nagorno Karabakh,” he said.
“Azerbaijan will never agree with any status of Nagorno Karabakh out of the frames of its territorial integrity,” Aiyev said, Trend News reports.
* Edward Nalbandian
“President Sargsyan's meetings with President Obama and Secretary Clinton provided an opportunity to continue the constructive dialogue and the discussions on the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations and the Karabakh conflict settlement,” Nalbandian said.
Commenting on Armenian President's meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Minister Nalbandian said the meeting “made it possible to have a clear idea about Turkey's stance.”
Asked whether Karabakh was touched upon during Armenian-Turkish talks, Nalbandian stated: “The Turkish side was trying to hold discussions on Karabakh, but we answered that Armenia-Turkey normalization could not be linked to the Karabakh settlement. I don't think there are any reasons to discuss the Karabakh issue with Turkey. First of all Turkey cannot be a mediator in the Nagorno Karabakh settlement process. Secondly, Armenia will never make concessions over the Karabakh issue for the sake of Armenia-Turkey normalization. Tying the two issues will harm both processes.”
“If Turkey does not want to fail this process, it should show very quickly in practice that it is ready to ratify the Protocols and establish relations,” Nalbandian said.
* Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Erdogan reaffirmed this linkage after talks with Obama. The official Turkish Anatolia news agency quoted him as telling journalists that Turkey will not open its border with Armenia as long as the Karabakh dispute remains unresolved. He also dismissed Armenian arguments that neither protocol makes any reference to Karabakh peace.
According to another leading Turkish daily, “Hurriyet,” Obama also assured him that the U.S., Russian and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group will step up their efforts to broker a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Public Radio of Armenia