Azernews.Az

2015 recorded no progress in the negotiation process over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; the situation worsened even more as Armenia intensified the ceasefire violations and aggravated of the situation on the contact line of Armenian-Azerbaijani troops.

The efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, tasked to mediate over peaceful resolution of the conflict, have yielded no efforts just in the previous years.

Azerbaijan has vowed to use all political, diplomatic and economic sources to achieve the peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which is one of the main hindrances for the development and source of insecurity in the South Caucasus region.

The main reason of such stalemate in the negotiation process is Armenia’s destructive position in the talks. Armenia is unwilling to peacefully resolve the long-standing conflict and is interested in and determined to maintain the current status quo that means keeping part of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territory under occupation.

The much-anticipated meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents last December in Switzerland also left hopes for the breakthrough in the peace talks unfulfilled for the next time.

President Ilham Aliyev has recently noted this meeting was of formal nature and yielded no results.

Armenia refuses to implement the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its immediate and unconditional pullout from the neighboring country's territories.

Impunity for its criminal acts encourages Armenia to keep on the occupation of Azerbaijan’s ancestral lands and prolong the unfruitful negotiation process further. Yerevan accepts the peace talks as never-ending process and therefore, makes every effort to delay conflict resolution.

Currently, the world is witnessing the emergence of many conflicts and clashes, as well as renewal of protracted conflicts, which frequently led to great human loss and suffering. This fact necessitates taking firm steps to prevent further escalation of situation around the world.

However, the international community ignores the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict over many years and doesn’t call the aggressor and victim with its name.

Though the world community immediately reacted to other conflicts and put pressure and even punished the countries that violated the territorial integrity of another country, such a position has not been observed in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Such indifference, more precisely, inaction on this conflict, which at any time can turn into a bloody war, encourages Armenia to hold on the control of the occupied territories.

Although the mediators have repeatedly stated that they want to resolve the conflict, unfortunately, no significant pressure was put on the occupant in this direction and no concrete steps to change the status quo were taken.

The Armenian armed forces have increased aggression against Azerbaijan, targeting the residential areas alongside the positions of the Azerbaijani Army. The shelling of the settlements located near the contact line and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border has endangered the life of civilians and even resulted with loss and wounding of them.

The OSCE representatives also targeted by the Armenian armed forces several times while conducting monitoring on the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops. However, the organization didn’t expose those guilty every time.

The end of the previous year was remembered with some positive statements from the big powers, namely by the United States and Russia, two co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The United States supported a dialogue between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities for a resolution to the conflict, which the Armenian side has impeded such contacts with all possible means.

Russia has put forward the proposal on return of seven occupied regions for initial solution of the conflict.

This activation of the two powerful states regarding the resolution of the conflict gives momentous hope for progress in peace talks, but remains just a hope amid continuous deadlock in the negotiation process.

Azerbaijan has always voiced readiness to resolve the conflict peacefully, but the military option is still on the table.

Restoring scaly military operations would benefit neither sides -- unfortunately it is hard for Armenia to understand this reality.