He supported Armenian side in one thing: wonderful opportunities are created for Yerevan to toughen its stance in Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
The official stance of Yerevan in the Karabakh settlement process represents uncertainty and as in recent times and now, Russian periodicals again plays into the hands of Azerbaijan, noting that Armenia gives up to negotiate which Moscow does not like … During Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s talks in Yerevan, a very remarkable question was raised by Serzh Sargsyan which did not attract much attention, “We were convinced that the problem could be solved exclusively based on compromise, through peaceful means, however today we have what we have. For that very reason, your point of view is very important to me: why did it happen? We certainly have our own ideas, however, you are much more informed and we would appreciate if you present us your point of view,” said Serzh Sargsyan to Lavrov.
The video of this meeting clearly shows that Lavrov slightly taken aback answers, “As for why the situation has reached such a critical point, I cannot speak for Armenia, Azerbaijan, or Karabakh, but I think if we were able to move forward in the political process, even a little, if we were able to present the general principles which could have been accepted by the sides at least as a basis for the creation of the legally binding documents, it would certainly played an important role for resuming the negotiations and would also become a constraint against the outbreak of hostilities. But I repeat that only the parties themselves can find solutions.”
Yerevan officially, whether Moscow likes it or not, make it clear that the negotiations were going on for years but in the end, Aliyev chose his plan of launching a war. Why? With whose silent agreement? Is there a guarantee that the same thing will not reoccur? After Lavrov’s visit, S. Sargsyan expressed more extensively in the interview with Bloomberg, stressing that it is time to take measures of trust, carry out control and make targeted statements. It was interesting that he spoke about the deployment of Russian peacekeepers and stressed that he does not see such a possibility, “If there are no talks, how should Russian troops appear in Karabakh or between Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces.” S. Sargsyan’s position was more than clear, “It is necessary to have confidence-building measures before any new peace talks. Next, it is necessary for them to take the commitment that after seeing these confidence-building measures and the investigation mechanisms, they will make targeted statements about who exactly violated the ceasefire agreement. Thirdly, we must have guarantees that these kinds of violations will not happen again. Otherwise, the talks are meaningless: we would start negotiations here and the soldiers would be in a war? Where have you seen such a thing?”
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To add also that recently, Novruz Mammadov, the Head of Foreign Relations Department of Azerbaijani Presidential Administration also addressed the issue of peacekeepers, noting that there is no specific question on the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone. The large-scale war could be resumed at any moment. It seems that everybody realize this. The ceasefire declared by Russia but not functioning is not enough to prevent the large-scale war. Why? The mediation countries in addition to calls to continue the talks must focus on the addressed mentioning of the responsible for unleashing the war and on the fulfillment of the idea rejected by Baku regarding the creation of a mechanism to investigate the incidents along the front lines. They can make their calls more specific if these mechanisms function, and in that case, they will every time “determine” who starts the tension in the line of contact.
Note that recently, French Secretary of State for European Affairs Harlem Désir noted that France proposes to deploy OSCE observers and control apparatus in the Karabakh-Azerbaijani line of contact. In other words, the US is for the idea so is France, Lavrov highlighted Germany on this issue, hence, what prevents to promptly bring this mechanism into life. Next, if the negotiations should begin in the near future, then Yerevan officially should strive to ensure Karabakh’s participate in the talks. Now, it is the most convenient moment to push on this. The future of Nagorno-Karabakh is to be determined by the people of Karabakh.
Actually, no matter how great our losses were in the four-day war but we must also state that Aliyev helped the Armenian side on one very important issue with his cynical plan of unleashing war: now, wonderful opportunities and conditions are created for Yerevan officially to harden the posture of Armenia and to come up with the preconditions. To put it otherwise, Aliyev must plead the Armenian side to return to negotiations, and after reaching it, he must find out that the Armenian side is returning to the negotiations with totally other conditions. This is what Aliyev contributed with his own hands, and missing this chance would be a great mistake for the Armenian side, fraught with irreversible consequences.
EMMA GABRIELYAN “Aravot” daily
