Minsk Group pushes for meeting between Azerbaijani, Armenian presidents
By Aynur Karimova
Increasing tensions in the region and along the Azerbaijani-Armenian border since the beginning of the year, as well as the need to achieve progress in the long-standing Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has made a meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents necessary.
In this regard, the top official of the OSCE, Lamberto Zannier, as well as the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick, have voiced the possibility of a meeting between Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia this fall.
OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk told Armenian media that the long-awaited meeting of the presidents will be held by the end of the year.
While the exact date or the agenda of the talks has not yet been determined, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said on October 20, "either the presidents will choose a topic for negotiations or the co-chairmen will make new proposals."
Thus, the agenda of the talks on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict depends on the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen’s forthcoming visit to the region, which is expected to take place on October 26-28.
A prior meeting between Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan took place in Paris, France last October through an initiative by the French president.
Diplomats and top officials have expressed concern over the necessity of finding a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is not considered a frozen conflict by many.
Therefore, the sides are being urged to find a solution, U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Secuta told reporters earlier.
Experts are confident that progress will be made toward resolving the conflict after the meeting between the presidents. However, Matthew Bryza, the former U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, believes that there is no chance that next meeting between Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia will lead to a major breakthrough, as there is no communication between them right now.
“You can’t get a breakthrough that is meaningful if you haven't prepared the way,” Bryza told Trend on October 19. “It takes a long time to build the trust that allows real things to happen. But it is important to have this meeting between the presidents to begin this process of direct communication and of building trust.”
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, causing a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 were reported missing, almost 100,000 were injured and 50,000 were left disabled.
The UN Security Council passed four resolutions on the Armenian withdrawal from Azerbaijani territories, but they have not been enforced to this day.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
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