By no means should the progress in Nagorno Karabakh settlement be a hostage of Armenian-Turkish reconciliation, Russian Co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group Juri Merzlyakov said in an interview with Ekho Moskvi radio station.

"Initially, starting that process, Armenian and Turkish sides agreed, that the process will last without any preliminary conditions, or preconditions, as they say. Among such conditions previously Turkey considered progress in Nagorno Karabakh settlement. It means, it conditioned Armenian-Turkish reconciliation by a tangible leap in Nagorno Karabakh settlement," he said.

According to him, if believe to the comments, related to recent agreement of joint statement of foreign ministries of Armenia, Turkey and Switzerland, playing a role of mediator, one must suppose that there are no preconditions from each side.

"Therefore we think that the processes certainly affect each other. However, that impacts should be positive to enable the processes develop parallel, without intersecting. Something will be obviously attained earlier somewhere, or later in some other place, but co-chairmen's position is the following. The main thing is not to turn our process, the Nagorno Karabakh settlement into the hostage of Armenian-Turkish reconciliation," stressed Merzlyakov.