Armenian official blames Azerbaijan over stalemate in Karabakh peace talks
The major impediment to progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) peace talks is the policy of violence pursued by Azerbaijan's politico-military leadership in the past 20 years since the outbreak of the conflict, according to Shavarsh Kocharyan, an acting deputy minister of foreign affairs.
“The negotiations keep going over the same ground for 20 years because of the policy of violence Azerbaijan has been pursuing ever since - as a possible solution to the problem. They otherwise attempt to bring Armenia to knees by imposing an economic blockade,” he said in an interview with Tert.am, questioning the role of the OSCE Minsk Group as an international mediator in the process.
Kocharyan highlighted three major responsibilities for the mission. “First of all, it is important to sign the big peace pact relying upon different consensus-based proposals. That doesn’t happen though because of Azerbaijan, which insists upon the everything-or-nothing scenario, expecting either to secure absolutely maximum gains or just head to a war.
“The second mission of the three co-chairs is to do everything possible to prevent renewed military actions. [The three co-chairs - France, United States and Russia - are competent to do that] given especially they all are permanent members of the UN Security Council. In no other conflict do we know of any engagement by three member states of the Security Council. So they will get a slap on the face should a war ever erupt,” he said, citing the close ties between the two missions as the third important factor.
Kocharyan noted that the fact became clearly evident after the April 2016 war (when the mediators arranged the Armenian and Azerbaijani top leaders’ meeting in Vienna, Austria, to agree on future steps towards de-escalating the situation). The acting deputy minister agreed that the key thesis underlying the Vienna arrangements was the urgent need to end the military rhetoric as a key confidence-building effort towards continuing the talks.
“Therefore when we speak of any development in the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process, we have to inevitably note that Azerbaijan hasn’t changed its position. Any negotiations could potentially rule out progress, yet in the ongoing negotiation process now, we do see respect for the ceasefire regime allowing us to build the kind of atmosphere that would pave way to a dialogue,” he noted.
Asked to comment on the Armenian authorities’ position on returning Karabakh to the negotiating table, Kocharyan agreed that a real progress would be practically ruled out without doing that. Meantime he again blamed Azerbaijan for hampering future progress due to the policy of aggression. “Azerbaijan is not ready for any mutual concession. They have themselves built the entire propaganda relying on the thesis that Artsakh isn’t a subject [of international law], with only Armenia and Azerbaijan being engaged in the territorial dispute.
“If that’s what they build their policy on, they will never want Artsakh to have any engagement in the negotiations. The co-chairs will clearly support Artsakh's participation in the talks. It is worthwhile to remember also the co-chairs' repeated statements that Artsakh is going to be a negotiating party. And what’s the underlying idea behind their statement? The very fact that Artsakh’s participation in the talks is mandatory if progress in the negotiations is what we really expect. Armenia cannot possibly discuss any issue which is exclusively in the domain of the authorities of Artsakh,” Kocharyan added.
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