Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Russia bargains with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh; US steps up e

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Russia bargains with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh; US steps up e

    Russia bargains with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh; US steps up
    efforts - opinions

    13:45 * 06.07.14


    Russia has started bargaining with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh,
    and the United States is stepping up its efforts to show Russia it is
    not the only one to deal with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflict, Director of the Armenian Center for Political and
    International Relations Aghasi Yenokyan told Tert.am as he commented
    on US Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern's statement that it is
    important for Nagorno-Karabakh that the seven other regions be
    returned to Azerbaijan.

    "The United States is issuing a reminder that it is the co-chairs that
    are dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and they are
    expected to reach a consensus on the problem. The second major reason
    for such statements, which have lately become frequent, is that the US
    sees a threat in Russia not regarding the territories in question as
    separate in negotiating with Azerbaijan. That is, it is ready, within
    the limits of the possible, to concede the territories - and
    Nagorno-Karabakh itself - to Azerbaijan," Yenokyan said.

    Asked to substantiate his statement on Russia bargaining with
    Azerbaijan, he said:

    "The recent period has seen more Russian officials' visits to
    Azerbaijan, intensified dialogue and Russia's consistent efforts to
    persuade Azerbaijan into joining the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU).
    It is natural, because the EaEU, in terms of documents, as well as in
    economic respects, is more a union of oil-producing countries, and
    Azerbaijan's participation is important. However, Azerbaijan and
    Russia are seeking to make use of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem in
    their negotiations."

    According to Yenokyan, Russian publicity media are already trying to
    voice their opinions of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    "Armenia should employ all the diplomatic and political mechanisms to
    prevent any concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh. But no obvious steps have
    so far been made," he said.

    Political Scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan noted it is actually one
    more response to a statement by OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair James
    Warlick.

    "I think that the reason for that statement by Mr Warlick was the
    Ukraine crisis and, against that background, the US policy of creating
    problems in new regions. Given the developments in recent months, the
    US seems to have rejected this scenario. Therefore, the USA's previous
    program of recording 'progress' in the peace process and implementing
    it here recedes into the background. It seems to have lost interest in
    the recent two months. So that statement did not arouse concern then.
    I think it is nothing but a response to it now, and the US Embassy is
    not seeking to accomplish any program objectives," Melik-Shahnazaryan
    said.

    As to his opinion of the Armenian side's response to such statements, he said:

    "In any case, when Mr Warlick stated that our response was rather
    passive, without any serious attention drawn to the fact of Mr Warlick
    distorting the Madrid principles - they allegedly only appeared to the
    Madrid principles. In this respect, I think, diplomatically, we should
    be more consistent so that nothing be commented in an arbitrary way
    and no territorial claims to Armenia be so easily made."


    Armenian News - Tert.am

Working...
X