Karabakh Conflict: Too early to speak about settlement, political scientist says
“Whatever is happening now is neither a settlement of the Karabakh Conflict nor an attempt, but rather a resurrection of the Minsk format as one of the guarantees for political security. This is what Minsk Group Co-Chairs are trying to do,” said Director of Caucasus Institute, political scientist, Alexander Iskandaryan.
According to him, the Co-Chairs are trying to bring the parties back to the negotiation table. Yet Iskandaryan noted the best they’ll achieve is another meeting between the parties.
“During the past 3-4 years there were no attempts of settlement, they were just trying to maintain the status-quo. Now they’re trying to bring that format back, and it’s too early to speak about settlement. The meeting will be good if they can get the parties to the negotiation table. The affirmation of another meeting would be a real result,” Iskandaryan noted.
Speaking of installation of investigation mechanisms on the Line of Contact, the political scientist said that it’s quite logical that Azerbaijan doesn’t agree to it.
“The Armenian side doesn’t need escalations on the Line of Contact, because it has won the war. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, has reasons to start fire. It’s clear that if the Azerbaijani side doesn’t fire, the Armenian side will cease fire too. Only through political means it is possible to make Azerbaijan agree to installation of the mechanisms, which exist but aren’t quite enough,” he said.