Transfer of powers of the OSCE Minsk Group to other structure was never on the agenda of the official Baku, the head of the foreign relations department of the Azerbaijan’s President Executive Office Novruz Mammadov told Trend in his exclusive interview.
He voiced bewilderment by the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Russian co-chairman Yuri Merzlyakov disseminated by a number of media on possible transfer of part of the Minsk Group powers on the peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-
Karabakh conflict to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). В"I have not heard and am not sure in the exact words of the co-chairman. However, in case Merzlukkov stated something like this, it causes certain reflections”, Mammadov said and noted, such a statement may be, to a certain degree the ground for doubts in regard to his professionalism.
According to Mammadov, the co-chairs have no powers to come out with such proposals. В"One should not make such statements at the stage, when the settlement process intensified for the last months and there are positive elements in talks”, he added.
Mammadov has not ruled out the possibility of meeting between the Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Azerbaijan, although there is no exact information in this respect.