Another round of negotiations between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, mediated by Dmitry Medvedev, will take place in Kazan at the end of June.
The Nagorno-Karabakh peace process will become the main topic of negotiations. The negotiations will be held in the format of a trilateral meeting, in the presence of Dmitry Medvedev. At the recent G8 summit held in Deauville, during the meeting of presidents of the co-chairing countries of the Minsk Group of the OSCE, that is of Russia, France and USA, mediating in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace settlement, the three urged the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to “demonstrate political will and complete the work over the Basic principles[of the Nagorno Karabakh settlement]”in the course of the forthcoming Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in June.In 2009, at the summit held in Aquila, an analogous special statement by the US, Russian and French presidents was adopted.
At the time an elaboration of a renewed variant of the Madrid Principles was the only result of the negotiations. Azerbaijan accepted the variant, but Armenia didn’t. So, these actions had no particular impact.
In 2010, at the G8 summit held in Toronto, the presidents of the MG OSCE co-chairing countries adopted a new statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, urging the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to accelerate the work on the Basic Principles of the conflict settlement, in order to proceed to elaboration of a Peace Agreement .
However the parties haven’t reached a peace agreement. The only efficient scheme for a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement is a trilateral meeting, with the participation of Dmitry Medvedev. It is in this format that the Meiendorf declaration, the first document in 14 years, was signed in November 2008 by both parties. On October 27, 2010, it was in presence of Dmitry Medvedev that the declaration providing for the return of prisoners of war was signed in Astrakhan. This declaration started being implemented soon after being adopted. The bodies of the deceased Azerbaijani soldiers were returned by Yerevan in early November 2010.
Concerning the meeting in Kazan, it cannot be expected to cause any phenomenal breakthrough in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace settlement. However, this format may yield results.
Elmira Tariverdiyeva. Exclusive to VK
