Azernews.Az

Negotiations on settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh are "stalled", Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has said.

Azimov said no steps forward have been taken to resolve the long-standing dispute after the Kazan meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in late June mediated by the Russian leader.

"Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has recently met with the [mediating] OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in New York, but I do not believe that any progress will be achieved, as the co-chairs understand that Armenia should change its position," Azimov told journalists last Saturday.

"Certainly, co-chairs of the Minsk Group and representatives of other international organizations will be aspiring to get something done, but my personal observations suggest that the co-chairs are trying to choose the easy way, as usual," he said. "I suppose that the co-chairs’ potential is limited."

During his meeting with the OSCE mediators, Minister Mammadyarov noted that Armenia has backed down from the updated Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by the mediators, thus putting at risk the negotiating process on Karabakh settlement.

"Substantial progress [in the peace process] can be achieved only if the Armenian side accepts the official document submitted by the [Minsk Group] co-chairing countries [United States, Russia and France] to Azerbaijan and Armenia in December 2009," Mammadyarov said, according to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry.

The Minsk Group co-chairs initially proposed the Madrid Document in the Spanish capital in November 2007. In Athens in December 2009, the updated version of the document was submitted to the sides. Azerbaijani officials, including President Ilham Aliyev, have repeatedly said Baku accepts the renewed Madrid Document with some exceptions.

Deputy Foreign Minister Azimov said that according to incoming data, Armenia has imported a considerable amount of offensive weapons from neighboring countries.

"These include rockets, anti-tank weapons, 78,000 AK rifles and other weaponry," he said. "So, the question arises: is this country getting ready for talks or war?"

Azimov said further that the Karabakh conflict should be considered "not in separate, but in terms of the South Caucasus strategy".

"It is not just a local conflict between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis, but a conflict that has been taken advantage of from the viewpoint of politics, one that is manipulated well and controlled. There are still aspirations to subdue the South Caucasus states. I understand that these games are not over yet. From the viewpoint of geopolitics, providing Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is a significant issue for international security."

The Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 due to Armenia’s territorial claims. Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. A ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.