The political scientist Rovshan Ibragimov, speaking with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, described the trilateral meeting of the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, which was held yesterday in St. Petersburg, as the next round of negotiations, but in a completely new situation.
"Firstly, it is a meeting after a four-day war in early April, which resulted in a new status quo. The fact that the presidents of the conflicting sides met after the events in April is significant by itself. At the same time we need to pay attention to the formation of a tripartite format, when the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan meet with the mediation of the Russian president. I think that meetings in this format will continue. It is not new, of course, in fact, previously Dmitry Medvedev, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan met 10 times before the Kazan summit," the expert noted.
According to him, the renewal of regular face-to-face meetings between the presidents is very important. "If for Russia the first and foremost goal now is to prevent a repetition of the April events, for Azerbaijan and Armenia it is essential that the presidents residents may hold face-to-face meetings again. In addition, I believe, there is an opportunity to explain the new situation and clearly state Azerbaijan's position on the issue and talk about further steps," Ibrahimov believes.
The political scientist noted that the OSCE Minsk Group currently has no objections to the leading role of Russia in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "Neither the US nor France object to the fact that Russia played the leading role in resolving the conflict. Of course, it [Russia] wants to resolve the conflict, despite different positions and views of the conflicting sides," he pointed out.
Ibrahimov added that, in spite of this meeting, the situation remains difficult. "The sides have agreed that the number of OSCE observers on the front lines will be increased, which by itself is one of the solutions to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, the April situation may happen again. Azerbaijan has repeatedly demonstrated that the Armenian side uses weapons, especially against the civilian population, the Azerbaijani army will be able to stop that," the expert said.
Even the initial point, which is the de-occupation of the Azerbaijani territories, has not been agreed yet. "President Aliyev during the meeting with President Putin reiterated that the de-occupation is the main point in resolving the conflict. Therefore, these positive aspects are not associated with the resolution of the conflict, but only with the format of the negotiations: the sides are supporting this format and conditionally ready to continue the negotiations," Rovshan Ibrahimov concluded.
