Nagorno-Karabakh is one of the most dangerous places in the world today. With Russia and Turkey at odds in Syria, a proxy fight may be escalating. The US has a national security interest in preventing an all-out war, with regional implications.
Areas expected to be discussed include the Palestinian territories, Libya, Yemen, Syria and the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, which has been the scene of renewed violence between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces.
Azerbaijan has wasted years in denunciations of “Armenian aggression” without ever offering the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh credible guarantees that it respects their rights and does not merely wish to destroy them. A just solution of the conflict will require a serious commitment by both sides to make compromises and live together.
“It’s a rather crucial step, at least in memory of those tortured and mutilated people, for the sake of their families, friends and all the people in the world, who bothered, sympathized and watched those barbaric cadres. Firstly, it’s necessary to give moral assessment to those atrocities. Secondly, it’s important from the viewpoint of international policy and international law, i.e. calling things by their names. At least, scrutinized investigation of all incidents should be implemented, and this, of course, is another argument in favor of the Armenian side.”
“Why doesn’t Azerbaijan hold direct negotiations with Karabakh. Presently we lose both sides. And why don’t we want to observe recent reports on beheading of Armenian soldiers? Why don’t we want to notice footages, telling about torturing of Armenian hostages…I realize, it’s important to take into consideration interests of each side, and doesn’t the truth, as a party, interest anyone?” he said, adding that a clear answer should be given to what had happened.
The announcement of the Putin-Rouhani-Aliyev summit followed a rapid escalation of the “frozen conflict” between Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which officially is a part of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan returned the bodies of 18 Armenian servicemen killed in combat last week along the frontline with its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
“We continue to insist on strict respect of the ceasefire and moving forward with peace talks. In particular, targeting civilians must be ceased. However, evidently, we aren’t able to agree upon the status quo and our political purpose must be resumption of negotiations for a comprehensive settlement of the conflict by the sides”, Mogherini stressed.
“In case of any military confrontation Russia is being engaged in acquisition and maintenance of ceasefire regime, due to which it increases its influence on all sides. Despite the fact that some of them enjoy this or no, we’ll face a situation, when Armenia’s dependency from Russia will intensify, however, it’ll intensify in case of Azerbaijan as well, we’ll see that other external actors will face serious problems in case of engagement with the conflict, this refers Turkey and Western actors, which creates a new situation,” Minasyan said. Touching upon Armenia-Russia relations, Sergey Minasyan said, it’s natural, both Yerevan and Moscow should get lessons from the occurrences, as it was a cold shower for Russia.
From April 2 it became finally clear, that Armenia, not having foreign policy, moreover, doesn’t have a ministry of foreign affairs, and in particular, a minister called the one. Edward Nalbandyan is the living edifice to absence of Armenia’s foreign policy. After April 2, however, processes have been developed on public-political platform, directed to restoration of lost sovereignty.
