“As we know, officials in Baku have talked about ‘more active role of’ the EU more often and rather emotionally. In that sense, the part concerning the Karabkah issue in Conclusions on South Caucasus draft doesn’t meet the Azerbaijani expectations, at first sight,” Vahram Atanesyan, the head of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic National Assembly foreign affairs committee, said, talking about the special document adopted by the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. “It is clearly said here that the EU ‘conveys its support for the OSCE Minsk Group,’ whereas on the same day the ruling Azerbaijani party high-ranking official said that ‘the Minsk Group has to set clear time limits for settlement.’ This is an explicit manifestation of putting the mediators under pressure, before the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ intended visit to the region. So one can assume that the draft discussed at the level of EU Foreign Affairs Council is not welcomed in Baku, to say the least,” said our interlocutor.
In Mr. Atanesyan’s opinion, it is also essential that it is mentioned in the draft about EU representatives’ access to Nagorno-Karabakh without preconditions, “The mention clearly addresses Azerbaijan. Since both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, on the contrary, have always supported and support the visit of EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus to Nagorno-Karabakh. It is worth to remind that because of the Azerbaijani side’s unconstructive approach, the former special representative of the European Union dropped the idea of visiting Nagorno-Karabakh on halfway a few years ago. Today the EU itself takes on a task of making it possible for its representatives to visit Nagorno-Karabakh without preconditions. It was an issue that should have been negotiated at the EU-Azerbaijan level, but in the changing situation, it seems that Nagorno-Karabakh should also consider the access of EU representatives to Nagorno-Karabakh and the appropriateness or inappropriateness of their activities here. Particularly given the fact that it is unexpected for me that the Madrid Principles were mentioned in the EU draft. It seems that we are already through that and it is almost impossible to “resurrect” a process that Ilham Aliyev suspended very ‘successfully’ last year, during the trilateral meeting in Kazan. My perception is that it was also the ‘funeral’ of Dmitry Medvedev’s mediating mission, so it is very surprising that the European functionaries expressed support for outgoing Medvedev’s mediation. Perhaps it had been better to say that the EU supported ‘trilateral meetings by Russia’s mediation.’ Anyway, the draft is not practical from this perspective and in terms of the Madrid Principles. This is my personal perception,” concluded Vahram Atanesyan.
According to our interlocutor, the European Union is ready to take measures to strengthen trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan and thus contribute to the OSCE Minsk Group mission. Mr. Atanesyan explains the fact that the European Union wants its officials, in particular, to be able to access Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories without preconditions by that.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
