Azernews.Az

BAKU - The recent meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers to discuss the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict "is the fruitless outcome" of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group’s 18-year-long efforts, says Mubariz Ahmadoghlu, the head of Azerbaijan’s Center for Political Innovation and Technology.
The meeting between Elmar Mammadyarov and Eduard Nalbandian took place on Saturday in Almaty with the participation of Russian and French Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Bernard Kouchner and US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg. No joint statement was adopted at the five-lateral ministerial, despite efforts by the mediating states.
"The whole world witnessed that Armenia will never -- and under no conditions -- peacefully return a single patch of Azerbaijani land. In a civilized world, there has not been a single mission that has inflicted as much damage to the mediating mission as the OSCE Minsk Group has," Ahmadoghlu told the press Wednesday.
The analyst went on to say that, from now onward, "a more tense and more uncertain stage" begins in talks on Garabagh settlement. He believes that the OSCE’s fruitless mediating activity is inciting the conflicting sides to war. "The Minsk Group’s activity makes a war in Nagorno Garabagh inevitable."
Ahmadoghlu said that even if Baku dies not formally pull out of the negotiating process, it should sever its ties with the Minsk Group.
He added that though the status of Nagorno Garabagh is "in the background" of the document that is currently on the negotiating table, Armenia is trying "to move it to the forefront".
Armenia has been occupying over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory since the early 1990s in defiance of international law. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994.
Peace talks are ongoing based on the Madrid principles, an outline for a conflict settlement proposed by the international mediators. The updated Madrid Document envisions an Armenian withdrawal from five out of the seven occupied regions surrounding breakaway Nagorno Garabagh after the signing of a peace accord, while the strategic Kalbajar and Lachin regions must be returned within five years thereafter. Azerbaijan stated that it generally accepts the renewed Madrid principles early this year, while the Armenian stance remains unclear.