The stabilization of the updated status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a necessary measure on the way to implementation of the ‘Madrid principles’, including the liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan and former assistant Secretary of State for South Caucasus, Matthew Bryza, said in an interview with ‘Vestnik Kavkaza’. He commented on the opinions expressed by some experts about the ineffectiveness of the previous round of negotiations on Monday in Vienna between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.
"I agree that the current diplomatic efforts are focused on strengthening the status quo, but there are objective reasons for that. My diplomatic experience allows me to assume that the OSCE Minsk Group aims to prevent the resumption of major hostilities, such as those that took place on April 2nd. Taking into account that heavy weapons appeared on the contact line in the past two years, such serious skirmishes may turn into a full-scale war,’’ he noted above all.
"When the ceasefire is again in place the OSCE Minsk Group will intensify discussions on a comprehensive settlement, which is to be based on ‘Madrid principles’. That means liberation of seven occupied Azerbaijani regions around Nagorno Karabakh, return of the refugees to their native lands, establishment of the temporary legal status of Nagorno Karabakh and future voting on its final legal status, creation of a corridor that ties Karabakh with Armenia and a peacekeeping operation," Bryza explained the current activities by OSCE Minsk Group.
Earlier, professor from Potsdam Wilfried Furman told Vestnik Kavkaza that the current mediators’ efforts are not enough to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh. "At the moment I see efforts to cement and strength the status quo,’’ he said.
The expert also expressed his confidence that the West will not insist on liberation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenian armed forces, because it wants to use the whole South Caucasus to counter Russia and the Eurasian Union geopolitically, by promising economic bonuses to the three countries, including Azerbaijan.
"If Russia will demand from Armenia to return the occupied territories to Azerbaijan, Yerevan will immediately begin to threaten [Moscow] with the withdrawal from the Eurasian Union and the signing of association with the EU. In my view, France and the United States are mistaken thinking that the truce process in the east of Ukraine can be applied to the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh,’’ Wilfried Furman noted.
Matthew Bryza refuted the assumption that the United States intend to create an anti-Russian bloc with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia. "I can confidently say on the basis of many years of work at the US Center for Strategic Studies and government planning for the South Caucasus that Washington has no interest in consolidating the South Caucasus into a block of three countries,’’ he said.
