OSCE Minsk Group visits Baku

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has met the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Igor Popov (Russia), Robert Bradtke (USA) and Bernard Fassier (France), with his replacement Jacques Faure. The special representative of the OSCE chairman Andrezej Kasprzyk was also at the meeting.

The sides discussed the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its prospects.

The co-chairs monitored the Armenian-Azerbaijani border at the village of Jafarli in the Gazakhsky District and met Ayaz Askerov, head of the local executive authorities.

Fassier made note of the fact that it is the middle of their visit. They met the president and ministers of foreign affairs and defense of Armenia. Tension is lower on the border than on the contact line of forces. A meeting with the president, foreign and defense ministers will be held in Baku, APA reports.

Fikret Sadykhov, an Azerbaijani political analyst and professor of the Western University, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the situation is a stalemate which may enter a hostile stage. It was caused by lack of new proposals. Foreign officials visit the area but want the conflicting sides to resolve the problem.

Another problem is that Armenia and Azerbaijan have different conditions, the expert goes on. The occupied territory of Nagorno-Karabakh has separatism, which is why the UN Security Council and PACE passed resolutions and the member-states of the OSCE MG make declarations. This is, in fact, a flouting of international law. New ideas for a solution are needed. There are still hopes for the Minsk Group to resolve the conflict, but such hopes die out more every day.

Sadykhov says that he does not know a single state interested in the conflict. Regional and European states and Russia would not want an unstable region. But so far they show indifference. Armenia refuses to fulfil the resolutions of the UN and heads of the OSCE MG member states. The expert pointed out the ease of intervention in the Middle East.