Expert: We are getting closer to a new round in Karabakh peace

The increasingly active dialogues over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) create an overall impression that we are getting closer to a new round in the entire peace process, Anna Karapetyan, an expert from the regional center Hayatsk (Insight), said today, hinting high chances of either a new meeting or the signing of a new document (or the impelentation of the arrangements reached).

“Two processes are going on parallelly. On the one hand, Russia maintains contact with the leadership[s] of Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the main emphasis being on the impelementation of the November 10 and January 10 arrangements, and on the other hand, we see intensified work by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, which was absolutely expected in the light of the domestic political developments in the United States,” she told ArmNews TV channel’s Lilit Tumanyan this morning.

Karapetyan said she believes that the OSCE Minsk Group’s current work evolves around the possible forms of the negotiation process and possible actions by the co-chairmanship.

“Nothing about the content, which really gives ground to concern,” she said, citing the discourse over the future work of the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office as another cause of consideration. 

Karapetyan noted that the Russian peacekeepers who currently guarantee the security and stability of Artsakh may be withdrawn from the region at any moment upon the Azerbaijani authorities’ demand.

“Should [Andrzej] Kasprzyk’s office close, we will lose an important institution of international monitoring,” she said.

Addressing the negotiation agenda, the expert questioned the Armenian authorities’ competence to develop an agenda of their own or establish priorities and precedences to have their specific expectations (in the light of the repeated statements on having specific addressees as part of the negotiations spearheaded by the MG co-chairmanship). “We see that Azerbaijan dictates today an an agenda, with the Armenian side meeting its demands unconditionally,” she added.