Levon-Melik Shahnazaryan: Rambouillet Talks Were Doomed to Failure

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Rambouillet talks of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents were doomed to failure, since the positions of the parties were too diametrical, political scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan told PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, "if there are no guarantees of status and security for Nagorno Karabakh against territorial concessions, the international law rates such demands as annexation". "The matter concerns not the reaction of the Karabakh population but the state mentality," he said.



As for the principle of the territorial integrity put forth by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, Melik-Shahnazaryan noted that this principle is not a law. "The International Law has a hierarchy where the principle of territorial integrity is not essential and bears merely recommendation nature. It's quite another matter if it is used when the parties to conflict are interested in it. It's very good that the Armenian party hold negotiations taking into account the above-mentioned hierarchy", the political scientist said.