Trend News Agency, Baku, Azerbaijan
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
May 28, 2011 Saturday
Crisis Group: Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents’ next meeting to
determine parties’ intention
BY: E. Ostapenko, Trend News Agency, Baku, Azerbaijan
May 28–BAKU, Azerbaijan — The next meeting of the Azerbaijani and
Armenian Presidents will be crucial for the international community to
realize whether the parties of the conflict have a real commitment to
reach an agreement, the International Crisis Group analyst Sabina
Fraser said.
On Thursday, the presidents of the Minsk Group co-chairing countries
made a joint statement on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the G8 summit
in Deauville, France.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, U.S President Barack Obama and
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on the Armenian and
Azerbaijani leaders to demonstrate the political will and to finalize
the work over the basic principles of [the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] during the upcoming Armenian-Azerbaijani
summit in June.
On one hand it sounds very close and the Presidents have not been
doing much yet to prepare their population for an agreement. But on
the other hand the basic principles have been on discussions till 2007
— four years of discussion, she said.
In Sochi in March they had a version of the basic principles which the
co-chairs believe is adjust and balanced basis for an agreement, she
said.
So at this point it is no longer about the basic principles, it is no
longer about actual words and a text, it is really about weather or
not the two Presidents feel that they can take the responsibility to
sign this agreement, she said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan have been holding the periodic meetings since June 2008 to
agree the positions to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Despite
this, the basic principles have not been agreed yet.
The statement in Deauville was extremely important. It was already the
third statement made by US, French and Russian Presidents for the past
few years. This statement is different from those of the past, because
it goes further than the previous statements, she said.
“If there is any use of force, it will be condemned by the
international community,” she said. “This is a very clear message for
both Azerbaijan and Armenia that there is no excuse to return to war.”
“Another thing that the statement says very clearly is that any
further delay for the signature of the basic principles would call on
commitments of the sides to reach an agreement,” she said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group — Russia, France, and the U.S. —
are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the
occupied territories.