Russia says `preamble` of Garabagh deal agreed
Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to the preamble
to resolve the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict during a meeting
in Russia on Monday attended by the three presidents, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the negotiations.
Lavrov did not elaborate on the content of the introductory section of the OSCE Madrid principles, which is an outline for a conflict settlement proposed by international mediators in 2007.
``There is a general understanding on the preamble of the document,`` Lavrov said after the talks concluded in Russia`s Black Sea resort city of Sochi. He said the greatest achievement of the meeting was that the sides had agreed to revise and update the provisions of the document that were previously deemed unacceptable.
The Madrid Document, initially presented by US, Russian and French intermediaries at the summit held in the Spanish capital, declares that the Garabagh conflict is to be settled in accordance with both territorial integrity and the right of nations to self-determination. It calls for ``the return of the territories surrounding Upper Garabagh to Azerbaijani control.`` The outline also includes ``a corridor linking Armenia to Upper Garabagh`` as well as a future determination of the final legal status of Upper Garabagh ``through a legally binding expression of will`` and the right of ``internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence.`` According to the updated version of the document, endorsed by the presidents of the countries co-chairing the mediating OSCE Minsk Group in a joint statement at the G8 summit in Italy in July 2009, Baku and Yerevan are to resolve their differences and move towards a final accord on the long-standing conflict based upon the Madrid Document.
Further, the Russian foreign minister said that Baku and Yerevan are preparing new proposals that will be included in the Madrid principles. According to Lavrov, both sides endorsed the presence of such a document, ``because it allows to negotiate not abstractly, but in connection with concrete formulations.``
Lavrov noted that the Sochi negotiations were very prolific. He said the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders had agreed to continue holding talks, expressing confidence that the meeting will further advance efforts of the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group. The meeting between Presidents Ilham Aliyev, Serzh Sarkisian and Dmitry Medvedev took place at the Russian president`s Krasnaya Polyana residence in Sochi.
Further, the meeting continued with the participation of the three countries` foreign ministers. The talks lasted two and a half hours, Armenian media reported.
According to the Russian media, Presidents Aliyev and Sarkisian continued the negotiations in the conference room of the Adler International Airport of Sochi with the participation of the Minsk Group co-chairs.
Following the discussions its participants took a walk and the three leaders went mountain skiing.
The Sochi talks were the fifth three-way meeting between the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian presidents. The first such meeting, held in November 2008, resulted in the signing of the Moscow declaration. The first document inked by the two heads of state in the past sixteen years, it called for settling the Garabagh conflict in line with the principles of international law and respective decisions and resolutions passed so far.
Official information about the Sochi meeting was released after a nearly two-week-long intense diplomatic activity, with Russia leading the way in these efforts. Hot on the heels of the discussions on Garabagh settlement held by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow on January 13, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov visited Yerevan. Further, early last week, Armenian President Sarkisian paid a short working visit to the Russian capital.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994, but Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law.
Peace talks have been fruitless so far but are still ongoing. Russia, along with France and the United States, is a member of the mediating Minsk Group.
Vafa Guluzada, an Azerbaijani former state adviser and political analyst, is skeptical about prospects for Garabagh peace talks.
Guluzada said the negotiations conducted by Azerbaijan in the past years would accomplish little. The analyst argued that Russia`s call for the conflicting sides to prepare their own proposals, in fact, means reversing the peace process.
``Russia is quite satisfied with the state of no war, no peace, because a conflict settlement could narrow down Russian levers of influence over the region and speed up Azerbaijan and Armenia`s integration into the Euro-Atlantic area.
Both sides had approached a solution to the conflict in 1998. Then-Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian proposed a stage-by-stage solution to the problem. But ensuing political developments caused his stepping down from office. And it was Russia who did this. Further, in 1999, Azerbaijan and Armenia were very close to signing a concessional peace accord at the Istanbul summit. However, the ministers and MPs, including the speaker and prime minister, were shot in the Armenian parliament. All of the steps being taken by Russia in the conflict settlement are just maneuvers.``
Another political analyst Rasim Musabayov has termed the Russian foreign minister`s statement on agreeing the preamble of the Madrid principles at the Sochi meeting as ``nonsense``.
``A preamble was not initially envisioned in the Madrid principles. The sides` agreeing to revisit and revise the provisions of the document that are unacceptable for them actually doesn`t mean anything, either. In fact, Lavrov did not say anything in his reflections on the outcomes of the Sochi meeting. More precisely, what he said means nothing.
``Work was underway on the points remaining to be agreed anyway. What I gather from this is that Lavrov was not inclined to provide any information on the outcomes of the talks. His words were nothing but concealing the results of the negotiations.``
Musabayov believes that it is too early to make conclusions on the Sochi meeting.
He said that, if progress was indeed achieved during the discussions, it will be seen after the presidents have stated their formal stance to that end.
``But it is also possible that the meeting was absolutely fruitless,`` the analyst added.
Lavrov did not elaborate on the content of the introductory section of the OSCE Madrid principles, which is an outline for a conflict settlement proposed by international mediators in 2007.
``There is a general understanding on the preamble of the document,`` Lavrov said after the talks concluded in Russia`s Black Sea resort city of Sochi. He said the greatest achievement of the meeting was that the sides had agreed to revise and update the provisions of the document that were previously deemed unacceptable.
The Madrid Document, initially presented by US, Russian and French intermediaries at the summit held in the Spanish capital, declares that the Garabagh conflict is to be settled in accordance with both territorial integrity and the right of nations to self-determination. It calls for ``the return of the territories surrounding Upper Garabagh to Azerbaijani control.`` The outline also includes ``a corridor linking Armenia to Upper Garabagh`` as well as a future determination of the final legal status of Upper Garabagh ``through a legally binding expression of will`` and the right of ``internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence.`` According to the updated version of the document, endorsed by the presidents of the countries co-chairing the mediating OSCE Minsk Group in a joint statement at the G8 summit in Italy in July 2009, Baku and Yerevan are to resolve their differences and move towards a final accord on the long-standing conflict based upon the Madrid Document.
Further, the Russian foreign minister said that Baku and Yerevan are preparing new proposals that will be included in the Madrid principles. According to Lavrov, both sides endorsed the presence of such a document, ``because it allows to negotiate not abstractly, but in connection with concrete formulations.``
Lavrov noted that the Sochi negotiations were very prolific. He said the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders had agreed to continue holding talks, expressing confidence that the meeting will further advance efforts of the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group. The meeting between Presidents Ilham Aliyev, Serzh Sarkisian and Dmitry Medvedev took place at the Russian president`s Krasnaya Polyana residence in Sochi.
Further, the meeting continued with the participation of the three countries` foreign ministers. The talks lasted two and a half hours, Armenian media reported.
According to the Russian media, Presidents Aliyev and Sarkisian continued the negotiations in the conference room of the Adler International Airport of Sochi with the participation of the Minsk Group co-chairs.
Following the discussions its participants took a walk and the three leaders went mountain skiing.
The Sochi talks were the fifth three-way meeting between the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian presidents. The first such meeting, held in November 2008, resulted in the signing of the Moscow declaration. The first document inked by the two heads of state in the past sixteen years, it called for settling the Garabagh conflict in line with the principles of international law and respective decisions and resolutions passed so far.
Official information about the Sochi meeting was released after a nearly two-week-long intense diplomatic activity, with Russia leading the way in these efforts. Hot on the heels of the discussions on Garabagh settlement held by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow on January 13, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov visited Yerevan. Further, early last week, Armenian President Sarkisian paid a short working visit to the Russian capital.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994, but Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law.
Peace talks have been fruitless so far but are still ongoing. Russia, along with France and the United States, is a member of the mediating Minsk Group.
Vafa Guluzada, an Azerbaijani former state adviser and political analyst, is skeptical about prospects for Garabagh peace talks.
Guluzada said the negotiations conducted by Azerbaijan in the past years would accomplish little. The analyst argued that Russia`s call for the conflicting sides to prepare their own proposals, in fact, means reversing the peace process.
``Russia is quite satisfied with the state of no war, no peace, because a conflict settlement could narrow down Russian levers of influence over the region and speed up Azerbaijan and Armenia`s integration into the Euro-Atlantic area.
Both sides had approached a solution to the conflict in 1998. Then-Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian proposed a stage-by-stage solution to the problem. But ensuing political developments caused his stepping down from office. And it was Russia who did this. Further, in 1999, Azerbaijan and Armenia were very close to signing a concessional peace accord at the Istanbul summit. However, the ministers and MPs, including the speaker and prime minister, were shot in the Armenian parliament. All of the steps being taken by Russia in the conflict settlement are just maneuvers.``
Another political analyst Rasim Musabayov has termed the Russian foreign minister`s statement on agreeing the preamble of the Madrid principles at the Sochi meeting as ``nonsense``.
``A preamble was not initially envisioned in the Madrid principles. The sides` agreeing to revisit and revise the provisions of the document that are unacceptable for them actually doesn`t mean anything, either. In fact, Lavrov did not say anything in his reflections on the outcomes of the Sochi meeting. More precisely, what he said means nothing.
``Work was underway on the points remaining to be agreed anyway. What I gather from this is that Lavrov was not inclined to provide any information on the outcomes of the talks. His words were nothing but concealing the results of the negotiations.``
Musabayov believes that it is too early to make conclusions on the Sochi meeting.
He said that, if progress was indeed achieved during the discussions, it will be seen after the presidents have stated their formal stance to that end.
``But it is also possible that the meeting was absolutely fruitless,`` the analyst added.
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