Settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is ready in terms of diplomacy – expert

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, mediating the Azerbaijani-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, will arrive in the region on November 28. French Ambassador Jacques Faure will replace Bernard Fassier as a co-chair of the OSCE MG and will be introduced in Yerevan and Baku.

Vestnik Kavkaza reported earlier that the co-chairs’ goal is to observe the situation in the region and prepare a conference of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Vilnius in December. They will meet the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents and foreign ministers.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said that Baku has no positive expectations from the visit. Armenia will try to benefit from the visit.

At the summit of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Kazakhstan the situation clarified itself but reached a stalemate. The French president’s visit to Yerevan and Baku was fruitless, Azimov notes.

Felix Stanevsky, head of the Caucasus Department of the Institute of CIS States, noted that the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh remains tense and that conflict is still a threat. Russian diplomats and the OSCE MG have developed principles for settlement of the conflict, as it was pointed out in Aksville in July 2009.

The conflict settlement is being dragged out by the public views in Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is not a matter of diplomacy, political or media efforts, the expert concludes.