Yerevan /Mediamax/.  Official Stepanakert responded to the recent call of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland to release Azerbaijani subversives accused in Nagorno Karabakh “as a gesture of humaneness”.

In her interview to Mediamax, NKR Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Sargsyan recalled that according to the preliminary investigation, Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz Guliev had committed a number of severe crimes in NKR. The court confirmed their guilt, and they were convicted on December 29, 2014. She also recalled that using their right, Askerov’s and Guliev’s lawyers appealed the decision of the trial court of the NKR general jurisdiction to Court of Appeal which would consider the appeals on February 26''.

''There is a clear distribution of power in NKR as in any other state governed by the rule of law. The judiciary power is independent from the executive and legislative powers. The court decisions should be respected and observed by everyone as is common in the whole civilized world'', stressed NKR Foreign Ministry representative.

Ani Sargsyan touched upon the statements made by Russian Foreign Ministry representatives according to which the issue of Azerbaijani subversives retained in NKR would be considered by Armenian colleagues on a bilateral basis. She noted that ''we didn't receive any appeals from our Russian colleagues''.

Commenting on the latest interview of U.S. Co-Chair James Warlick to Mediamax, she stressed that the NKR's not being at the table of negotiations makes the final settlement of NK conflict problematic.

''We can achieve real progress in Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement only through restoring the full format of talks with NKR's direct involvement in all the rounds of talks - from the exchange of opinions on the philosophy of settlement up to elaboration and implementation of concrete steps and agreements. Resumption of the trilateral format of talks is in the interests of all the sides which are willing to settle the conflict as soon as possible, and can play a crucial role in advancing the negotiations process in the current situation'', stated representative of NKR Foreign Ministry.