PRINCIPAL PROBLEM OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT – ABSENCE OF TRUST BETWEEN YEREVAN AND BAKU
Pan Armenian News
05.09.2005 04:59
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian and Azeri Diasporas should be
attracted to the Karabakh settlement process to establish trust
between the conflicting parties, head of the department for national
relations of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis Sergey
Markedonov stated, RIA Novosti reports. “The principal problem of
Karabakh settlement is the absence of trust between Yerevan and
Baku”, he says. The expert reminded that Baku insists on return
of the territories and then determination of the status of Nagorno
Karabakh. “However the Armenian party doubts Azerbaijan will keep its
promise”, Markedonov added. He stressed that there is a key problem
of trust, which cannot be solved by Russia, the U.S., Turkey or the
OSCE Minsk Group. “There should be contacts and discussions of new
models. Presently package and stepwise variants of settlement have
collided and no progress is observed. Bilateral activity of Armenia
and Azerbaijan should be more serious while the OSCE Minsk Group
should not be expected to work a miracle,” he said. In his opinion,
a different scheme should be elaborated, since neither package
nor stepwise variants are compromise. As for Russia’s initiative,
the political scientist noted that “to make any proposals, Russia
should have precise Caucasian strategy that is absent at present.
Nevertheless, in Markedonov’s opinion, taking into account the strong
Armenian and Azeri Diasporas Russia can transmit the experience upon
the Armenian-Azeri relations in the South Caucasus. “Russia can use
it as a resource of informal reconciliation”, the expert resumed.