Azerbaijan’s aggressive policy at the Armenian border and the line of contact with Artsakh, the periodic ceasefire violations drag out the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Director of the Oriental Studies Institute of the National Academy of Sciences Ruben Safrastyan told a press conference today.

Azerbaijan showed in 2015 that it’s not only uninterested in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, but is also taking certain steps to drag out its resolution.

Speaking about the expectations from the upcoming meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Safrastyan said: “Judging from the logic of Azerbaijan’s actions throughout 2015, the growing aggression at the Armenian border and the line of contact with Artsakh, the meeting will hardly produce real results. All through 2015, Azerbaijan’s policy has been aimed at frustrating the negotiation process,” Safrastyan said.

Turning to the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group, the political scientist said the only positive thing the Minsk Group Co-Chairs manage to do is to organize presidential meetings. “This gives some hope that the Azerbaijani leadership has not finally abandoned the peace process.”

Ruben Safeastyan added that “taking into consideration the developments in the Middle East, it becomes obvious that the military factor is strengthening in the region.” “This is the trend,” he said, adding, however, that the recent meeting between the US Secretary of State and the Russian leadership and the fact that Russia and the US presented a joint initiative of curbing funding of the Islamic State, is positive.