Big interests seen for influence in Nagorno-Karabakh peace process

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

The recent statements by the world powers on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the settlement of which reached the deadlock, had an effect of grabbing an initiative in this painful issue for Azerbaijan.

The two co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group - the United States and Russia especially activated efforts on the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. The U.S. has called on the parties to the conflict to peacefully resolve the problem and voiced readiness to render help in this regard. Russia, on its part, put forward new proposals for the resolution of the long-standing conflict.

Although the statements promising a sincere contribution to the peaceful resolution of the conflict have become frequent, they do not give a hope for a "principal key" anymore unfortunately.

Arzu Nagiyev, a political analyst, believes that the United States and Russia are fighting for influence in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

As the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group have not been able to move beyond the adoption of a declaratory judgment and conventions, now they are trying to take the initiative in their hands.

Dmitriy Savelyev, a member of the Russian State Duma and head of the Russian-Azerbaijani inter-parliamentary friendship group has recently expressed hope for a breakthrough in the peace talks this year, noting that in spite of the deadlock over some issues, the work is continuing properly.

He said in an interview to Russian media that firstly, seven occupied Azerbaijani regions attached to Nagorno-Karabakh should be released from troops.

The idea on the return of seven occupied regions to Azerbaijan was earlier voiced by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as well.

Nagiyev noted with regret that this idea remained at the stage of the statement, whilst the situation on the contact line between the two countries’ troops and border aggravated even more later.

“International organizations, the world community knows that Russia is one of the key figures in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. If today Russia declares that seven regions should be returned then it means that Armenia is a country that has no role and has no right to make decisions,” the expert said.

Nagiyev further said that the United States, in turn, is trying to reduce Russia's role in this matter by putting forward a proposal for a meeting of communities and conducting hearings in Congress. He believes their main purpose is the acquisition of influence.

With mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group, the sides to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict currently holds talks based on the renewed Madrid principles, which envisage return of occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to the Azerbaijani control, ensure the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence, future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh and etc.

Naghiyev underlined that the main task is to form a strong army and force Armenia and its supporters to the constructive negotiations.

“Otherwise, the negotiations will drag just putting forward initiatives and fighting for influence and that will linger the status quo that is unacceptable for us,” he said.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.