The April War Showed to the International Community that Karabakh Conflict shouldn’t be Forgotten: German Analyst

“West-Russia confrontation didn’t allow that Germany’s efforts on NK conflict zone gave their benefit to the settlement process,” Uwe Halbach, German analyst, told 168.am, reflecting to the conflict settlement negotiations.

He stated, that constitutional amendments, initiated in Azerbaijan, will timely ignore NK conflict settlement negotiations and generally the activity on the contact line. “However, it’s difficult to say what influence those changes will have on the settlement or ongoing situation on NK conflict zone, as the president’s will and positions will even be strengthened.

However, recent developments show, that negotiation activity around NK conflict has faded, which is natural in international practice, when the situation outbreaks on certain conflict zone international players mobilize their powers, and when relative calm-down is recorded, the conflict is being forgotten. However, the April war showed to the international community that NK conflict explosive situation shouldn’t be forgotten,” the German analyst said. According to the latter, after the meetings in Vienna and St. Petersburg there was hope that the sides will state on some crucial decision.

“It seemed that negotiations are intensively developing, there were talks, information on documents, however, the sides, to all probabilities, didn’t come to an agreement again and the situation is entering into a deadlock,” Halbach said. Regarding Germany’s activity, as an OSCE MG Co-Chair, Halbach considers that Germany really intended to have its positive investment in the settlement process, for which rather active German FM Steinmeier paid a visit, attempting to feel the moods of the parties to the conflict.

“However, in my conviction, Russia-West, including Russia-Germany tension, ongoing situation in the region prevented those efforts from bringing benefit to the settlement process. Conflict neighborhood is also dangerous, which has created a complicated situation both for conflicting countries and mediators,” Halbach concluded.

By Araks Martirosyan