Meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents to negotiate another meeting will harm Nagorno-Karabakh peace process- Grigory Trofimchuk

Approval of the basic principles of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an attainable goal, US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza said. He underlined that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group should continue meeting the presidents.

Grigory Trofimchuk, Vice-President of the Center for Modeling Strategic Development, believes that a meeting of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents would not create a breakthrough in resolving the conflict and would discredit Russia as a mediator in the process. The West would use such a situation. Russia would be the first to be blamed for the failure, since it is the main coordinator of the processes.

Azerbaijan sees a benefit from an increase of international interest in the problem. Ramiz Mekhtiyev, head of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, said at the international conference for the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijani independence, organized by the Center for Strategic Studies of the president and the UN Development Program, that Azerbaijan continues facing international neglect of the problem. The international community has not done anything to stop Armenian aggression or to free Azerbaijani lands from occupation. Azerbaijan is aware that Armenia receives support discretely. The OSCE MG needs to understand that the patience of the Azerbaijani people has limits, Mekhtiyev says.

Trofimchuk says that a meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents is possible. But no breakthroughs are expected. In fact, this political factor causes doubts. The coming meeting is just a meeting and only aggravates the situation. This is evidence of a lack of solutions to the problem.