Matthew Bryza: Current situation fundamentally different from 1994
By Trend
To put an end to the Karabakh war, a ceasefire agreement with the mediation of Russia was signed in 1994, Former Co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group and ex-US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza said, Trend reports.
Bryza made the speech during his interview with CNN.
“The current situation is different. During the years when I was the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, there was an agreement in principle between ex-President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Within a number of key factors, this was considered logical,” Bryza said.
“There were hopes that Nikol Pashinyan, who came to power after the "velvet" revolution, will establish normal relations with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and that there will be certain progress in resolving the conflict. In fact, after the first meetings in 2018, both leaders said in their statements that it is necessary to prepare the peoples for the truce process. However, after the "velvet" revolution, Pashinyan came under political pressure in his country, couldn’t live up to expectations, and, having changed his mind, said that he didn’t support the previously agreed principles” Bryza said.
“As for the current tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Bryza noted that it is not known who started the conflict, from which side fire was first launched, but it is known that both sides use heavy weapons and armored vehicles are deployed along the line of contact.
“It is too early to talk about peace. I think that the fighting will continue until Armenia prevents Azerbaijan's military operations, or until Azerbaijan is fully entrenched in the returned lands,” said Matthew Bryza.
“The US has certain interests in the region. But it is clear that, as it was during the presidency of Obama, the administration of Trump is also not paying enough attention to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. I think that mainly Karabakh was the focus of the administration of Bush. They are voids in the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group, the co-chairing countries of which are the US, Russia, and France, they cannot do more than what they did. Therefore, I believe that in the current conditions these voids can be filled by Russia, which supports Armenia, and Turkey, which supports Azerbaijan with the slogan "one nation, two states",” Bryza added.
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