Has Trump formed his position on Karabakh?

Washington remains committed to working with the parties of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict toward its peaceful settlement, the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk group Richard Hoagland said.

According to him, the issues relating to the return of territories, return of Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs to their lands, non-use of force and status for Nagorno-Karabakh are all important elements of a comprehensive settlement the parties need to discuss.

"This is precisely why my fellow co-chairs and I continue to encourage the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to meet at the earliest possible opportunity and engage in good-faith negotiations on a way forward. I would like to remind that the OSCE co-chairs are mediators and facilitators. We cannot force a final decision. Only the leaders of the sides can decide when it is finally time to make an historic decision that will guarantee peace and lead to eventual prosperity for the entire region," Trend cited Hoagland as saying.

The co-chair of the OSCE Minsk group added that during the increased diplomatic activity in the coming weeks and months, the co-chairs will be making a number of statements to reinforce policy and encourage highest-level negotiations.

Head of the Department of Political Science of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Gevorg Mirzayan, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that Richard Hoagland's statement showed that Washington's position on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement has not changed, despite the radical change of the presidential administration.

"The United States has always been a mediator, which is only obligated to support the peace process, which must be carried out by the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is not being carried out, because currently there are no conditions for the peace process. The intensification of US mediation efforts, while the sides do not agree on certain variants of compromise, would be meaningless," he pointed out.

Thus, the new US administration chose to hold the standard US official position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "The US is engaged in mediation efforts, but they are not going to seriously intensify the process, because this intensification will lead to nothing. The US cannot press Armenia because of the Armenian lobby and cannot press on Azerbaijan because of the oil and gas lobby, so they are no able to solve the conflict - just 'freeze' it a little in the best case," Gevorg Mirzayan drew attention.

The political scientist Rovshan Ibragimov, in turn, recalled that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not the key point of the Trump team's foreign policy. " After Trump's coming to power, the US foreign policy has undergone certain changes. Washington preferred to adopt a standard position on Karabakh: the US is interested in maintaining the status quo in the region and resolving the conflict only through peaceful means. The United States does not welcome any possible escalation of the conflict, but it does not intend to do anything more than the ordinary mediator," he stressed.

The expert drew attention to the fact that the US position on Karabakh was initially built on an unjustified equalization of the parties to the conflict. "The problem is that the occupant and the victim of the occupation were put on equal terms. Although if the territory of a country is occupied, measures should be taken against the occupier. But it has not been done, so this approach led to the fact that to this day, 20% of Azerbaijan's territory is occupied and the conflict has not been resolved yet," Rovshan Ibrahimov said.

The political scientist Andrei Yepifantsev noted that In the voiced position of the new Washington on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict there is a share of cunning. "Hoagland was being disingenuous when he says that the US as intermediaries cannot impose a solution to the conflict on the parties - when there is a great interest in the region, the US confidently imposes its position. This statement shows that the United States does not have much interest in this region, and therefore they say that the parties must agree on themselves. This is due to the position of President Donald Trump," he stressed.

"If Barack Obama said that the US should carry democracy everywhere and make appropriate efforts, then Donald Trump says that the affairs of other countries are not the affairs of the US, and they must cope with their own problems. Therefore, after the election of Trump in foreign policy several important regions for the United States have been outlined - partly the Middle East, Europe, Ukraine to some extent, but not Karabakh. Therefore, the maximum that can be expected from Washington - statements and attempts to organize a meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. There will be no breakthrough solutions, so the US official position will not affect the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Yepifantsev concluded.