Aliyev was forced to give his consent in Vienna
On May 16, in Vienna, the joint statement of the co-chairs after the meeting of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State of the United States of America John Kerry, and State Secretary for European Affairs of France Harlem Désir, representing the co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, proved that the mediators have agreed to advance the preconditions put forward by Yerevan officially. The mediators insisted on the preservation of the 1994 and 1995 ceasefire agreements.
Note that at the UN General Assembly and Security Council, Azerbaijan had disseminated a letter dated April 14, with which trying to shift the responsibility on Armenia, to unilaterally cancel the open-ended tripartite ceasefire agreement signed between Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia in May 12, 1994. This was an obvious attempt to fail the process of negotiations by Baku and to evade the preservation of the ceasefire regime. Next, the Ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries reaffirmed that the conflict has no military solution. Thus, a specific response was given to Azerbaijan’s aggression in April without targeted criticism that the military operations are unacceptable.
Moreover, the co-chairs stated that the presidents reiterated their commitment to the preservation of ceasefire and peaceful settlement of the conflict. And most importantly, referring to the implementation of mechanisms for investigating border incidents. For months, as is known, Baku officially was not giving its consent to this proposal represented by the mediators, reasoning that it was a meaningless proposal of “technical nature” put forward by the Armenian side. But as a result of the Vienna meeting, it becomes clear from the circulated statement that Baku was forced to accept this proposal.
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The statement reads, “to reduce the risk of further violence, the presidents agreed to finalize the OSCE investigative mechanism in the shortest possible time.” The Presidents also agreed to the expansion of the existing Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office. Finally, they agreed to continue the exchange of data on missing persons under the auspices of the ICRC, to which the Presidents committed during the Paris summit of October 2014. “The presidents agreed on the next meeting to be held in June at a selected locations in order to resume negotiations on a comprehensive settlement agreement between the parties to the conflict” the ministers concluded their statement of OSCE Minsk Group.
Serzh Sargsyan was not in the role of a requester, Azerbaijan did not object
In an interview with reporters on returning from Vienna, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that he had offered to hold the next meeting after the establishment of the monitoring, “There was a talk about the necessity to meet some time later. And we made a constructive proposal: as the subject was around the establishment of the monitoring by the co-chairs for maintaining a ceasefire regime, we proposed this to be established until our next meeting. This would be a constructive approach from both sides”. Talking about the proposal, Serzh Sargsyan noted, “when talking about the establishment of a monitoring regime, we were not in the role of a requester.” “I just developed the proposal of the co-chairs for the formation of a monitoring system. So, if Azerbaijan had not agreed, they would have objected,” said S. Sargsyan, responding to the question of what was the position of the leader of Azerbaijan when the local media was putting forward preconditions for the implementation of security measures. “There has been no precondition for the establishment of the monitoring regime. And I do not know which Azerbaijanis insist on the withdrawal of troops and then the establishment of the monitoring, but I am dealing with the President of Azerbaijan who did not state anything like it over there.” As for the time schedules for introducing the monitoring mechanism, S. Sargsyan said, “The co-chairs said that the monitoring regime must be installed a day before. I think that in a very short period of time as they also have this in mind and we are not against it. The abilities of the OSCE Personal Representative and its staff will increase, and the sooner it is established, the better. Because I repeat that the mutual accusations do not help the process. And there is a need for a specific evidence. In this regard, I think that we will be in the advantageous position since it is obvious that we never violate the first as we do not need it.”
Overall, Serzh Sargsyan is satisfied with the results of the Vienna meeting although he stated that he does not think that “the violations will be excluded right from tomorrow, but I hope that it will be much quieter than it was until now.” In his words, this would be a constructive approach from both sides, “We have not talked about the negotiations; certainly, there was a talk that it would be better to have a meeting in the foreseeable future, but we have not talked about any terms. We have talked about the maintenance of the ceasefire regime and I expressed a wish that if there is going to be a meeting, then it would be better to have it after the establishment of the monitoring regime,” said the President. As mentioned by Serzh Sargsyan, Aliyev did not object, but what Aliyev actually has in mind, it is not clear and will be seen in the near future.
Baku has agreed to Lavrov’s comments
Both in the day of negotiations in Vienna and the next day, following the news feed of Azerbaijani sites, it was evident that neither the meeting nor the following statement was to the liking of Baku. The information pause, perhaps, indicated that the outcome of the Vienna meeting was not acceptable for Baku. While Baku would come out of the “shock”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave a briefing to the reporters shortly after the Vienna meeting. He said, “There are grounds to assume that Baku and Yerevan intend to make concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The moderators that regulate the issue will contribute to this.” Detailing the theme about the concessions, Lavrov added, “Mutual concessions are always possible. Otherwise, Russia, US and France would not be dealing with the issue. We intend to finalize the process to start moving forward to the complete settlement of the conflict. Against the considerable tension between the conflicting sides, we will progress phase-by-phase, and there is now a possibility to agree over the first phase parameter. We have grounds to assume that the negotiators of the Armenians and Azerbaijani sides intend to formulate the concessions. We will do everything to contribute to it.” Lavrov also spoke about the future progress of negotiations, “In June, the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will agree on the place and dates of the next meeting, during which given what has been implemented in the framework of the political process, they will continue working on agreeing to the parameters for the final settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
It is noteworthy that the Russian foreign minister also addressed the issue of investigating border incidents, “The parties to the meeting agreed to the maintenance of a truce and ceasing the fire in the way it is enshrined in the 1994 – 1995 agreements. We have also agreed that the OSCE will formulate concrete steps that will allow us to investigate incidents along the front lines and the OSCE will also help to solve the problem of the missing persons.” Here, Baku’s official stance is interesting. In assessing the Vienna meeting, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister cited Lavrov’s statements. On May 17, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated the following: ” I agree with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s assessment that yesterday’s meeting opens up a good opportunity to start the substantial talks on well-known step-by-step approach on conflict resolution. The talks must start as soon as possible and produce tangible results so awaited by people in the region and the international community.”
One gets an impression that Baku officially continues to adhere to the statements circulated by itself for months – “Lavrov’s proposals based on the principle of territorial integrity.” This perhaps is the best way for Baku to distort the outcome of the Vienna meeting and to hinder the possibility of using the proposals, which until now Baku is consistently impeding.
EMMA GABRIELYAN
“Aravot” daily
