OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore’s call for stopping the violence on the  Line of Contact around Karabakh did not asbolutely ease the tension, the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta says in a recent article.

“The exchanges of fire continued across the border of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh [Republic]. Speaking in Yerevan and Baku, Gilmore pointed out to the impermissibility of violence. But the messages from those countries came to suggest that it did not actually yield any result,” the paper says, commenting on the recent border incidents between Azerbaijan and Armenia and the OSCE official’s subsequent statement in that connection.

The author of the article, Yuriy Rocks, believes that all future expectations now depend upon the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers’ upcoming meeting in Paris later this month.

“Gilmore would tell the conflicting parties sensible things about peace. But that wasn’t something they were hearing for the first time over the past year. The conflicting sides now accuse the mediators of the current stalemate in the negotiations,” he says, adding that Yerevan is more tolerant to the current status quo over Karabakh in comparison to Baku.

Elaborating on Gilmore’s statement, however, Rocks notes further that it gives rise to many questions for the Armenian authorities as well.
 

“Yerevan does not conceal its disappointment as Gilmore said at the Baku airport that he is not planning to visit the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh. As for the other question, it is directed more to the international stakeholders rather than the OSCE,” he adds.

According to the paper, Armenia cannot but worry over the strengthening Israeli-Azerbaijani cooperation that enabled Baku to acquire $2 billion worth weapons supplies (a deal which the West calls a coerced step against the backdrop of the tension around Iran).

Referring to the Israeli Knesset’s recent debates over the Armenian Genocide, it characterizes the move as Tel Aviv’s attempt to drive Turkey to a tight corner.


The tension in the Caucasus cannot go unnoticed by the official Moscow, the paper says, referring to the Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service’s recent warning to ban the import of fruits and vegetables from Azerbaijan.
 

Noting that Armenia and Russia are strategic partners, Rock says in the meantime that Iran appears to be the country’s hidden ally.
 

“The fact that the military base in Gyumri has intensified its shooting drills and prolonged the hours of flights for pilots cannot be a mere coincidence, given the tension on the Contact Line,” he adds.