On January 27, after the meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Krakow, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs spread out a statement with rather remarkable accent, for the first time breaking the tradition of calls with “balanced” tone.
The co-chairing countries’ statement reads that they have expressed a serious concern to the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister about reported incursions across the Line of Contact and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, resulting in casualties, afterwards, emphasizing that the rise in violence that began last year must stop for confidence to be restored and progress to be made in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. Later on, the co-chairs simply stressed, “We called on Azerbaijan to observe its commitments to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. We also call on Armenia to take all measures to reduce tensions. All sides must abide by the terms of the ceasefire agreement.”
The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ statement also reads, “We reminded the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister of our mandates and expressed concern about voices critical of the ongoing negotiation process, the role of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, and the duties of OSCE monitors.” To the point, the above-mentioned statement was made after a meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, during which, according to Azerbaijani media, Mammadyarov accused the Armenian side in “implementing subversive acts”, stating that their goal is to “hamper the negotiation process.”
As said in non-diplomatic language, the Minsk Group “has shown Azerbaijan its place” and recommended not to “go beyond the limits”, by diplomatically reflecting the more mitigated part of the tough and sharp criticism in the published statement too. This statement can totally be considered a slap to official Baku. Perhaps, feeling the slap, Baku has not uttered a word regarding the statement of co-chairs, where they do not miss the chance to notify that the Azerbaijani authorities met this-or-that official, and once again reminded the subjects of the return of “occupied territories” and over one million refugees. The last statement of the co-chairs is really a positive fact, given the fact that the policy of no longer neglecting the lawless actions by the Azerbaijani authorities in the Contact line for so many months and directing calls to both parties, to put it mildly, are out of sense.
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With the statement as of January 27, the OSCE Minsk Group showed and stated that they know which side is breaking the ceasefire regime and create an endless tension in the Contact line. Not only the Minsk Group, they too knew about it long ago, the difference is that this time, it was made a decision to respond to the behavior of the Azerbaijani authorities. As to what extent the response is equivalent to Azerbaijani subversive acts, it is another topic. If we take into account the fact that the authors of the statement are the mediators dealing with the settlement of Karabakh, then it can be considered quite adequate.
Followed by the January 27 statement, we can record that there is a beneficial diplomatic situation for the Armenian side in the Karabakh settlement process. The sentiment and criticism already created against dictatorship practices in Azerbaijan is now added by a direct criticism statement against Baku in the Karabakh front. The Armenian side should not be satisfied with such formulations as “the mediators understand us,” “the international community knows that we are for peace”, etc. Armenia’s authorities should work more actively about imposing sanctions against the Azerbaijani authorities, up to demanding Armenia’s strategic ally Russia not to sell arms to Azerbaijan to avoid keeping the Contact line in tension and entering the Karabakh peace process into an endless deadlock policy.
During the year of 2014, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have met in Sochi, Newport and Paris. There are further talks about the possibility of organizing a meeting at the presidential level. For a long time, the Azerbaijani authorities have strayed from the path of maintaining the ceasefire regime, they have shifted to subversive actions, overt provocations, and all of this is accompanied by the steps of establishing obvious dictatorship inside the country, through execution of persecution against those who have opposition views. The next Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting should be held under obvious advantageous conditions for the Armenian side.
Emma GABRIELYAN
