Recently marked the 26th anniversary of the establishment of the OSCE Minsk Group (March 24, 1992). In an interview with Aravot.am, Hayk Khanumyan, a deputy of the Artsakh National Assembly, touching upon the activity of the structure set up for peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict, first of all he noted that the mediation mission is not a grateful task at all: “I think because of the fact that the conflicting sides constantly address various accusations to the mediators, whereas it should be noted that these mediators actually have a technical role: they organize meetings between the sides, try to make some suggestions, to get to know their views on various issues, etc.”.
He noted that the nature and mandate of the mediators are such that they are trying to keep the so-called artificial balance. Therefore, there is no need to have great expectations from the OSCE Minsk Group. “It seems they should restrain Azerbaijan, while the real restrainer must be the Artsakh army. In other words, we have misconceptions about mediation, and wrong expectations based on those. I have said several times and now I state: we have reached the highest result only when Stepanakert and Baku have interacted with each other”, said the deputy.
Khanumyan added that the mediators should be regarded as mediators. “We must work only to move the negotiations to the immediate Stepanakert-Baku dimension. Recently there are talks about adding up certain mandates, in particular, the increase of the number of field assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair, which, I think, will not provide substantial solutions to the problem and shuttle diplomacy will continue. The result is that observers from the mediating countries go to the capitals of the three sides and convey the results of their meeting, their impressions, but nothing changes at the end. Some documents in the names of various European cities appear on negotiation tables, then disappear, then get recycled and reappear, and as a result, there is no significant progress in resolving the conflict”, the deputy noted.
He thinks the OSCE Minsk Group should have a permanent diplomatic representation in Artsakh and carry out daily activities at least at that level, as a result of which constant exchange of information may be useful for solving some issues in the future.
David ABAGHYAN
