Azernews.Az

Kazakhstan has said it will adhere to a neutral stance on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh during its chairmanship in the OSCE, which is brokering the peace process, so that Astana "is not blamed for Turkic solidarity."
The statement was made by Shamil Stamkulov, the adviser for the Kazakh embassy in Baku, at a debate titled "the new OSCE chairman [Kazakh Foreign Minister] Kanat Saudabayev’s first visit to the South Caucasus: possibilities and projections", held in the Azerbaijani capital on Friday.
Stamkulov said it was crucial to tackle work between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Upper Garabagh to move the conflict settlement forward and that Kazakhstan will focus on these efforts.
The diplomat said that as the OSCE chair Astana will employ the mechanisms defined by the organization and the world community as a whole in dealing with conflicts. He noted that Kazakhstan’s position is that the principle of territorial integrity is to be primarily upheld, to be followed by ensuring the self-determination of nations.
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. Despite numerous rounds of the OSCE Minsk Group-brokered negotiations, peace talks have been fruitless so far and refugees remain stranded. Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and Azerbaijani refugees displaced during the armed conflict in the early 1990s returned home, and only after that could the status of Upper Garabagh be determined within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
Political commentator Fikrat Sadykhov believes that considering the actual state of affairs, it is hard to expect a breakthrough in resolving the Garabagh conflict from Kazakhstan's one-year OSCE presidency. At the same time, he voiced hope that Kazakhstan will remain committed to its principled position in dealing with lingering conflicts. According to Sadykhov, Saudabayev’s efforts may, at the initial stage, allow to achieve liberation of seven Azerbaijani districts around Upper Garabagh from Armenian occupation.
Another analyst, Rasim Aghayev, says Kazakhstan now has a chance to demonstrate its mediating skills to the international community and break the deadlock in the process of Garabagh settlement.
Analyst Ogtay Sadikhzade bewares that superpowers could impose their will on Kazakhstan, saying two of the three OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, France and Russia, are military allies of Armenia.*