The Kazan meeting was another one

  And most importantly it was aimless, because contrary to the expectations it was not historic and turning at all

 Yesterday as a result of the negotiations on the Karabakh conflict settlement in the Kazan Kremlin presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliyev and Dmitri Medvedev signed a trilateral statement, with which they expressed gratitude to the Minsk Group co-chair countries for their constant attention.

“The presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russian Federation met on June 24 2011 in Kazan and discussed the work process that had been conducted by their assignment to agree on the project of the Karabakh conflict settlement basic principles. The state leaders agreed on a set of issues, the solution of which contributes to creating conditions to admit the basic principles. The presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia expressed their gratitude to the leaders of Russia, the USA and France as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs for their constant attention to the Karabakh settlement issue and highly appreciated the efforts of the president of the RF toward gaining the agreements”, is said in the joint statement of the three countries according to “Mediamax”. Perhaps “the mountain has brought forth a mouse” expression is appropriate for this kind of situations, considering the sensation and the statements the Kazan meeting caused beforehand that the trilateral meeting could be a historic one and a round agreement was expected.

Yesterday during a conversation with “Aravot” ex-minister of foreign affairs of the RA Aleksandr Arzumanyan, answering our question whether he expected that after the OSCE MG co-chair country leaders’ so many interviews and calls, the interviews given to the international mass media by the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan that had created a background of serious expectations from the Kazan meeting could end in a-few-line gratitude statement like this, said, “I did not doubt for one moment that such a general statement would be signed, because the general diplomatic process is one thing when the diplomats, presidents of the co-chair countries are going to make some statements, and the general context of the ongoing processes, the statements of the important actors in the region, like Iran, Aliyev and Sargsyan and the others, is a completely different thing. After Deauville following the whole process, it is obvious that the sides are not ready to resolve the issue and nothing could be signed. Therefore I do not understand what was the reason for some people’s excitement that they were going to sign something very soon, but I did not have such an expectation myself.”

Does this mean that after this generally fruitless meeting it must be expected that the OSCE MG co-chair country leaders and the international structures interested in the settlement of the NK conflict will put more pressure on Armenia and Azerbaijan or as it happened years ago, the OSCE MG co-chairs would state about freezing their activities, pointing out the pointlessness of their efforts and that the sides are not ready to resolve the issue? “This does not mean anything. This was another “galochka” (tick), arising out of the normal process logic, that the sides needed; Medvedev needed his efforts to be specifically appreciated, others needed to state once again that the MG spared no effort for the peaceful settlement of the conflict, the sides on the other hand had to state once again that they were ready to continue the negotiations, to take steps to reach an agreement”, said the ex-minister of foreign affairs of the RA, in response to our question.

I.e. the existing status-quo is in all sides’ interest. A. Arzumanyan was inclined to agree with that remark of ours. “One may say so. I.e. nothing has changed. I am surprised that we perceive the recent developments anew. Does the same story not repeat every year – a new window of possibilities, another summit, another meeting? The same stir all the time, until we find out once again that we have fallen in the same trap”, stated the ex-minister of foreign affairs.