Azernews.Az

OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict have reached a consensus on returning five Armenia-occupied districts around Garabagh to Azerbaijan, the former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian was quoted by Novosti Armenii news agency as saying.
Ter-Petrosian, who heads the opposition Armenian National Congress, told a rally in Yerevan on Tuesday that "the consensus" implies that five Azerbaijani districts will be returned soon.
"But nothing is being said about the stationing of peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone and the status of the Lachin corridor [a road connecting Upper Garabagh, an Azeri region under Armenian occupation, with Armenia’s territory] and Upper Garabagh. Garabagh’s interim status only stipulates that the Garabagh authorities that have not been recognized to date are to be recognized. Instead of major concessions, Armenia is receiving only empty promises," Ter-Petrosian claimed.
The two South Caucasus republics have been locked in conflict for two decades. Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law. OSCE-brokered peace talks have so far been fruitless and refugees remain stranded. Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and IDPs returned home, and only after that could the status of Upper Garabagh be determined within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
He went on to say that Baku’s approving the updated Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by the mediators, is making things difficult for Yerevan. According to him, returning five districts to Azerbaijan does not amount to a solution of the long-standing dispute and the way the developments will unfold afterwards depends on Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian’s position.
"Sarkisian is faced with a dilemma: he is either to sign an accord contradicting the Armenian people’s interests, or delay the peace process to gain time. The latter option will anger the international community," Ter-Petrosian opined, adding, however, that the Armenian leader is likely to opt for the first alternative.*