The political analyst notes that Armenia’s posture on Nagorno-Karabakh issue is indefinite
The Azerbaijani leadership represented by the president and the foreign minister continues to accuse and criticize the OSCE Minsk Group complaining that the latter is inactive. Thus, it looks that our neighboring state is trying to push the Minsk Group out of the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process. In an interview with Aravot.am, Director on Scientific issues of the Armenian Center for Strategic and National Studies, Manvel Sargsyan, mentioned that Azerbaijan is unlikely to willing to give up the only format of the negotiation process – the Minsk Group – it has no alternative. “It is just trying to bring the Minsk Group to responsibility with the help of its “moans and groans”. They got a huge blow at the PACE after the discussion of anti-Armenian resolution when the MG came out openly against quite a successful document for them,” said Mr. Sargsyan and noted that in response to it, Azerbaijan should have made statements.
Mr. Sargsyan noted that there were warning statements by the Minsk Group to Azerbaijan reminding of January, last year, when the MG urged Azerbaijan to respect the ceasefire and recommended Armenia to take measures to reduce the tension. According to Manvel Sargsyan, despite the Minsk Group periodically changes its attitude, it again becomes tolerant towards Azerbaijan, nevertheless, Azerbaijan does not “gulp” the criticism, “This is the reason that Azerbaijan is trying to be in an internal fight with the Minsk Group,”- says our interlocutor.
He mentions that now the Minsk Group is not involved in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, “It has become a structure with much more strategic, quite powerful controlling and restraining mechanism, it contains superpowers. They are doing their best to establish and maintain peace in the territory. This is their mission. If you have noticed, they talk much less about the settlement problems, the theme of the negotiation meetings is only about the contact line, – says Mr. Sargsyan, noting that this change is brought in by Azerbaijanis, – by constantly creating tensions in the contact line, Azerbaijan was pursuing only one goal, they call it a military diplomacy, they were thinking that thus it would be possible to exert pressure on the Minsk Group. But in reality, a situation was created that actually the theme of the negotiation changed. Now, the contact line already became the theme, and Azerbaijan appeared in a pretty bad situation. They also do not know whether to continue this diplomacy or not. After the last meeting of the presidents, Azerbaijan began to speak again that the theme should be the settlement, it is necessary to return to this-and-that document, but they also realized that it is no longer possible to put the theme of the settlement back to the negotiation table.”
Read also
Now, according to Manvel Sargsyan, Azerbaijan has isolated itself, appearing in an “obscure situation, “Its posture with the Turkish conflict is in the air: it does not know whether to defend Turkey or not. It is again in conflict with America. In this situation, creating conflicting relations with the Minsk Group will only lead to its isolation.”
Mr. Sargsyan noted that it would be much better should we have our posture in this situation, “We need to look at our problems. There is no common posture with regard to these recent resolutions. There is no posture. There is a posture that the conflict should be resolved within the Minsk Group, and we should refrain from touching upon this issue in other tribunes. Azerbaijan does the opposite, we look at Armenia and are unaware of what it is doing. There is no posture, which is also a big problem,” says Mr. Sargsyan and notes that we do not have even a clear posture with regard to the term “settlement”. By saying “settlement”, each understands one thing. A settlement is one thing for Azerbaijan and a different thing for Armenia. Azerbaijan has never changed its posture, it wants its territories. As to how Armenians have understood by saying “settlement”, it is hard to say. They say that the Minsk Group offer is put on the table and that’s all, brilliantly understanding that Azerbaijan has other objectives in these negotiations and will never go for concessions. What is our politics in this case, it is not clear, it is not made clear. At times, they make situational statements: if Azerbaijan starts a war, we will recognize Karabakh. If not, what are we going to do?”- asks Mr. Sargsyan and noted that the answers to these questions are not voiced from political and diplomatic platforms.
To our observation that recently Armenia’s foreign minister urged not to criticize the diplomats, Mr. Sargsyan replies, “These people should be able to give answers to simple questions, well, let our diplomatic corps answer what they understand by saying “settlement”.
Hripsime HOVHANNISYAN
