DEFENSE and SECURITY
WPS Agency, Russia
June 19 2012
PARIS SECRETS OF YEREVAN AND BAKU
BY: Yuri Roks
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, #113, 19.06.2012, p. 6
On Monday Azerbaijan and Armenia were expecting news from Paris.
Foreign ministries of the two countries, Elmar Mammadyarov and Eduard
Nalbandian, came there on the initiative of the Minsk group (MG) of
the OSCE responsible for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. The
pre-planned negotiations seem highly necessary because of the critical
complications on the line of contact of the conflict parts and in some
cross-border Armenian-Azerbaijani regions. Some sources in Baku and
Yerevan suggest that the meeting in Paris precedes the negotiations of
the presidents.
Rendezvous between Mammadyarov and Nalbandian had received an
additionsl intrigue due to the statement made by the U.S. Secretary of
state Hillary Clinton who had visited Yerevan and Baku in the
framework of a regional tour in the beginning of June. Clinton’s
meaningful intonations might read that the “new approach” will put an
end to the longstanding enmity of the neighbouring countries.
Her visit coincided with an unprecedented for the post-war years
worsening of the conflict not only in Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR), but
actually in the Azerbaijani-Armenian border regions. Military
provocations have markedly reversed her appeal to peace.
[translated from Russian]