Talks at gunpoint

OSCE acting chairman arrives in the South Caucasus

The OSCE acting chairman, Lithuanian foreign minister Audronius Ažubalis, arrived recently in the South Caucasus. He is expected to visit Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan and discuss the ongoing conflicts that have been tearing the region apart for some 20 years.

Mr Ažubalis is expected to visit Baku first and ask to hear Azerbaijan's official position regarding the recent trilateral talks in Sochi that resulted in a joint declaration by the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents, who confirmed their intention to settle the conflict by peaceful means.

The OSCE representative could not remain silent on the recent violation of the ceasefire regime by Armenian troops, which resulted in the death of a 9-year-old Azerbaijani boy from a village near the border. Mr Ažubalis said that this tragic incident demonstrates the necessity of removing snipers from the borderline on both sides. This tragedy, which caused an outcry in Azerbaijan as well as in the milieu of the Azerbaijani diaspora abroad, occurred on March 8, right after the meeting of the three presidents. This event might have be an arranged provocation to undermine the peace process, which would demonstrate Armenia's inability to turn to civilized means of conflict settlement.

During his address to the Armenian diaspora in Lithuania, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that he did not expect any positive outcome from the Sochi meeting, but that he saw some positive changes in the position of the Azerbaijani President during the talks. Mr Sargsyan said that he hopes to continue the talks based on three principle positions that are, however, still to be discussed with the Azerbaijani side: non-use of violence, territorial integrity and the right of people for self-identification. ‘That will be just the beginning of real peace talks,” the president said.

 

The prolonged conflict settlement process is officially listed at the top of Lithuania’s OSCE chairmanship agenda, Nagorno-Karabakh and Georgia-Abkhazia and Ossetia being the most important. Yerevan is in the third place on the OSCE chairman’s agenda. In Azerbaijan and Armenia,  Audronius Ažubalis will meet with the countries’ presidents, foreign ministers, parliamentary parties’ representatives and public activists.

Eugeni  Krishtalev, exclusively to VK