The co-chairs dictated their condition to Armenia and Azerbaijan: Lukyanov
“There was one new point in the statement by the co-chairs,” Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs, Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, told 168.am, reflecting to the joint statement issued by OSCE MG co-chairs on NK conflict settlement negotiations. The statement particularly read, “We call on Baku and Yerevan to honor the agreements reflected in the Joint Statements of the 16 May Summit in Vienna and the 20 June Summit in St. Petersburg. We welcome the sides’ progress in implementing the exchange of data on missing persons under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. We urge the parties to remove all remaining obstacles to expanding the mission of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and to make progress on a proposal to establish an OSCE investigative mechanism. The proposals should be implemented together with the immediate resumption of negotiations on a settlement.”
According to Fyodor Lukyanov the interesting point in that statement was that the co-chairs sent their message both to Azerbaijan, which considered use of mechanisms on the contact line useless, and Armenia, which considers content negotiations useless without installation of those mechanisms.
“The co-chairs said that both mechanisms will be installed and content negotiations will be developed. This is the condition of developing negotiations, without which mediators refuse to work. In my assessment, this is a correct approach and it doesn’t contradict interests of the Armenian side, it’s the Armenian side that wants use of ceasefire maintenance mechanisms on Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line.
Judging from interviews of Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, the Armenian side is also ready for concessions within the three principles of the settlement. Azerbaijani president, in his turn, touches upon return of lands peacefully, this is a new development, maybe a consensus will start developing. In any case, I consider we won’t edify wide-scale clashes, although we didn’t anticipate them in April either,” Fyodor Lukyanov said.
To the observation that Russia-Turkey rapprochement process has more sharpened Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s rhetoric, Lukyanov said that there are no new programs in Russia-Turkey relations. According to him, the sides currently work towards restoration of former volume of relations, at the same time showing to the West, that without it they can develop a serious pole, which, according to the expert, isn’t so serious.
However, the first concession from the side of Russia and Turkey Lukyanov considers their demonstrative consensus around Syrian and NK conflicts with the results of Lavrov-Cauvsoglu meeting. “Azerbaijan may get encouraged, however, Russian policy and interests haven’t changed. Russia will pursue its traditional policy, and I don’t consider that changes will be recorded,” the analyst said.
By Araks Martirosyan
