Karabakh peace mediators' regional trip reveals 'troublesome' regularity - expert

The OSCE Minsk Group mission's recent visit to the South Caucasus revealed a regularity which, interesting though at first sight, gives rise to really serious concerns in a long-term perspective, according to a Yerevan-based expert.

Speaking to Tert.am, Hermine Mkhitaryan (Hayatsk analytical center) cited particularly the French, Russian and US co-chairs' meeting with the group identifying itself as the ″Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh″ (Artsakh). ″Though the co-chairs maintained dialogue with that kind of unit also in the past, the recent meetings – held particularly since May 2018 – have had a periodic frequency. What gives rise to most concerns, they bear a kind of institutional character now,″ she noted.

Mkhitaryan said she doesn't have serious expectations from either the visit per se or the subsequently released statement ″amid the current tensions on the global scale, as well as in the regional context.″

″The co-chairs' visit to the region coincided with a turn of events whose atmosphere was tense as it is. The general regional developments on the one hand and the incidents on the Aremnia-Azerbaijan and Karabakh-Azerbaijan border on the other – and last but no least, the tough-sounding rhetoric by the sides ('Artsakh is Armenia – period', and the response from Baku saying 'Karabakh is Azerbaijan – an exclamation mark') – neutralize the chances of high expectations,” the analyst explained.

She noted that in the 1.5 years preceding the government transition in Armenia, the co-chairs conducted five regional trips but visited Artsakh only once (in June 2017) to meet with the self-proclaimed “community″.

Mkhitaryan said she is under the impression that the Baku authorities ″artfully″ took advantage of the new Armenian government's call for returning Artsakh to the peace process, raising the importance their community in the second Armenian republic.

″Baku rebranded the ‘Azerbaijani Community of Karabakh' in a kind of interesting way, appointing a career diplomat, Tural Ganjaliyev, as its leader and embarking on a process of  ensuring its braoder engagement and participation on all the international platforms.″

″In response to the fair demand for Artsakh's return to the negotiating table, Baku is now pushing ahead with the engagement of the 'Azerbaijani Community of Karabakh' in an attempt to bring the problem to the intercommunity platform. Armenia did not give a due attention to this in 2018 and keeps disregarding the issue also now. Its consequences, therefore, are visible at present and reflected in the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group,″ the analyst added.