It is the beginning, not the end

  After reaching an agreement on the principles at the new round of the negotiations, it will be possible to discuss the details

 After the three-sided meeting taken place on March 5 in Sochi between the presidents of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, the presidents of the three countries made a joint statement with which they agreed to 1. Exchange the war prisoners as soon as possible, 2. Try to resolve every disputable issue through peaceful measures and along the seize-fire line organize with the participation of both sides an investigation of the possible occurrences under the auspices and with the support of the special representative of the OSCE incumbent president.

 Of course, even after this meeting, Azerbaijan continues to stick to its well-known attitude and another Armenian soldier was killed on the previous day of the meeting with the Azerbaijani sniper’s bullet, and on March 10, we had another dead. Probably the Azerbaijani president has serious problems within his country and that is the reason why every time after three-sided meetings take place when some agreements are reached on the basic issues, the Azerbaijani side denying its president carries out new assaults.

We have already written that the president of the RA said about the three-sided meeting taken place in Sochi, that it would be possible to reach a certain agreement on the Karabakh issue in the near future, “After the Sochi meeting one may say that there is some progress in Azerbaijan’s position. I think in the near future it is possible to reach an agreement on the principles of resolving the Karabakh conflict.” According to the president of Armenia after reaching an agreement on those principles, it will be possible to start a new round of the negotiations and then a lot of questions will be detailed, and it will be possible to discuss the details. I want to state that the agreement on the principles is the beginning of the negotiations, not the end.”

The Armenian political powers have not yet managed to discuss this statement, which was a new one compared to the statements made recently. According to the assessment of a political scientist Suren Surenyants, it is quite good when the Armenian president after a three-sided meeting says that he can see some changes in Azerbaijan’s position and in Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani president says the same thing about the position of the Armenian side. According to Surenyants there is not a more dangerous situation, than unresolved conflicts, “Because when the conflict is not resolved the danger of restarting the war is becoming just real.

Any way of resolution, any process aimed at resolving, is more desirable for the current situation, especially when the resolution principles are long known in general for everybody and I do not think that the Sochi meeting brought new tints in the process. By the way, it is a very strange coincidence that in Azerbaijan they say the Armenian position is becoming more constructive, and Serzh Sargsyan says about the Azerbaijani position that it is becoming more constructive. It is a bit strange that the both sides claim that the other side is becoming more constructive. I do not share that kind of optimism much and I think that the both sides are making that kind of statements on propaganda purposes. Moreover, following the reactions on the Sochi meeting I think that it did not make any real progress in the negotiation process. The sides just tried to at least agree on fulfilling the terms of the Astrakhan statement.”

Reflecting on our remark that such convinced claims cannot be groundless Mr. Surenyants said, “Azerbaijan has the same confidence, since the leaders participating in the meetings often make statements which can sometimes have something to do with the reality, but do not reflect the reality completely. Let us do not forget that the negotiations are a very hard process and each side tries to represent those negotiations to public in its own interest.”

According to our interlocutor, the details can be the elimination of the war outcomes, the blockade issues, humanitarian and other issues, “I think that firstly these issues should become the subject of the discussion.”