Nagorno-Karabakh: Baku's new diplomacy

Azerbaijan trying to increase international pressure on Armenia.

Everyone has already got used to the fruitless attempts to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan and Armenia still demonstrate absolutely contradictory approaches. Yerevan is trying to pursue Baku to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh's independence. At the same time, Baku in concordance with international law, insists on the liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

The situation is worsened by both parties' reluctance to take unpopular measures. In Armenia the authorities are unable to make a compromise with Azerbaijan as such measure would show that the coup that overthown Levon Ter-Petrosyan was meaningless. Incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan's position is shaky. He knows well enough that there are a lot of politicians are ready to replace him.

Azerbaijan is not ready for a compromise solution either. Baku's position is backed by the international law and four resolutions of the UN Security Council. In addition to this, the position of Azerbaijani is more favourable due to the country's rich natural resources and good relations with the most influential countries of the world.

Thus no one is going to recognize independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, including Armenia. Armenians are unable to inhabit the occupied territories due to demographic problems. That means that Yerevan's position is getting more and more shaky.

That means that the parties are not ready to settle the conflict. In this case the role of the international community is extremely important. However the international community cannot force the parties to come to an agreement even they simply don't want too.

Still there seems to be no other way out. The mediators should not only prevent a new war, but force Armenia to leave the occupied territories.

Orkhan Satarov, head of the Vestnik Kavkaza's European office