Azernews.Az

YEREVAN – An International Crisis Group official has said it is difficult to predict whether or not there will be progress at the Russian-brokered talks on Nagorno Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders in late June, but there are "great hopes".

"This is also connected with the fears that if no agreement is reached, the question arises whether this process will continue," Sabine Freizer said in an interview with Armenian newspaper Zhamanak (Time).

"Armenia and Azerbaijan will have elections soon. The electoral processes are also planned in the mediating countries. If the parties fail to agree this year, it will be difficult to compromise in 2012-2013."

Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan will hold talks in the Russian city of Kazan with President Dmitry Medvedev’s mediation on June 25.

Freizer said the latest statement of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group's co-chairing countries – the United States, France and Russia – was clear, specific and powerful. The statement clearly stated the expectation of the presidents for the parties to agree on basic principles of the conflict resolution in the nearest future, perhaps, during the Kazan meeting.

"It is also stressed that if consensus is reached, all three countries will observe the implementation of these principles by providing financial and other assistance," she said.

"If the parties fail to agree and one of them uses force, it will be perceived by the co-chairing countries as a negative step. It will not be perceived as a way of solving the problem."

In their statement, issued at the G8 summit in the French resort of Deauville on May 26, Presidents Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev called on the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to finalize the basic principles of a peace agreement during the forthcoming Kazan summit.

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, has been under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks are underway on the basis of the Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs.