Azernews.Az

An International Crisis Group official has said any meetings between the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders are a positive development, but the text of the joint statement issued after their Russian-brokered talks on Monday suggests that they did not foster drastic changes in reaching a peace accord on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian Presidents - Ilham Aliyev, Serzh Sargsyan and Dmitry Medvedev - held the tenth trilateral meeting in the Russian city of Sochi. In the joint statement, the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents voiced their readiness to accelerate reaching agreement on basic principles of the Karabakh conflict settlement.

Lawrence Sheets, the ICG’s South Caucasus Project Director, said given that the presidents have been negotiating the basic principles since 2005 and were close to an agreement several times, this is "a tiny result".

"Regarding other proposals, for instance, pulling back snipers from the contact line [of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops] and creating a mechanism to prevent ceasefire violations -- which are crucial for defusing tension -- no result was achieved," Sheets said.

He said further that potential progress in Karabakh settlement within a year will be delayed by elections in Azerbaijan, Armenia and the countries co-chairing the mediating OSCE Minsk Group.

"This period could be used for promoting the environment of confidence and continuing dialog," Sheets said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war in the early 1990s that displaced up to a million Azerbaijanis. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since the 1994 ceasefire.

Peace talks are underway on the basis of the Basic Principles, a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs. The principles include the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to return home.

This story is published by AzerNEWS Weekly under a project funded by the Foundation for State Assistance to the Development of the Media under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.