ArmInfo. It is quite difficult to determine today what is behind Yerevan’s latest statements about the need to determine the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is clear that the range of possible statuses is very wide, and, in fact, apart from independence, it is quite difficult to distinguish other statuses among them .A similar opinion was expressed to ArmInfo by chief researcher of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, orientalist Alexey Malashenko.
According to RA Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Marukyan, Armenia responded to Baku’s 5 points with 6 points. In particular, in a response letter to the letter of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, the absence of territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan was noted. Another point concerns ensuring the security guarantees for the Armenians of Artsakh, observing their rights and freedoms, as well as determining its final status.
Yerevan also considers it important to fulfill all the obligations enshrined in the statements of the leaders of Armenia, the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan dated November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2021. Yerevan is also ready to negotiate a peace agreement, normalize and establish interstate relations based on the UN Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Helsinki Final Act. The final provision noted Yerevan’s appeal to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to organize the relevant negotiations.
“The possibility of choosing Yerevan between Baku’s proposals in order to continue negotiations in this direction is also not ruled out. We see that the possibility of pro-Armenian decisions is seen quite vaguely, while Prime Minister Pashinyan spoke quite openly about lowering the bar of Armenian aspirations on the issue of the status of NK. In any case, we see that the peace process is quite complicated and is accompanied by internal discontent in Armenia and largely incomprehensible disagreements around it,” he stressed.
Touching on the external background of the settlement, the expert highlighted the haste of Baku, Ankara and Brussels against the background of Moscow’s involvement in a protracted Ukrainian war with problems involving protracted solutions not only in Ukraine, but also in other regions. And of course, Moscow’s desire to maintain its own influence in the same South Caucasus, which, in his opinion, is becoming more and more difficult with time.
“One way or another, analyzing this entire internal and external spectrum of events and geopolitics, all these rather difficult circumstances and the background around the settlement, we have to state that decisions will not be easy and quick. There are plenty of grounds for such a forecast – this is the difference between the proposals of Baku and Yerevan and, of course, the most complicated geopolitical background around the settlement, caused by Ukraine. All this leads anywhere, but not to the speedy end of the problems between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Malashenko summed up.