U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick made a reported on settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the Carnegie Fund in Washington yesterday. The report has six basic principles: the intermediate status of Nagorno-Karabakh should be temporary and both sides need commitment to determine the final status; the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomy uncontrolled by Baku should be given an intermediate status that would guarantee security and self-governance; occupied territories should be put back under Azerbaijani control and sovereignty should be restored; a corridor should connect Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, but it should not cover all the Lachin District; refugees should have the right to return to their lands; the peace process needs international guarantees for security, peacekeeping.
Asim Mollazadeh, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament and political analyst, said that the principles violated the international norms. He emphasized that the territories were occupied, but Warlick abstained from any reproaches towards the aggressor. The political analyst reminded that the UNSC had passed resolutions for de-occupation of Azerbaijani territories, but nothing had been done for their realization. Mollazadeh urged the U.S. to take more decisive actions to settle the conflict.
Alexander Markov, director of the Armenian branch of the Institute of CIS Countries, emphasized that some of Warlick’s points seemed more like a wish. They need approval of other co-chairs. Reframing the same unaccepted principles will not bring the bring the peace process any closer to conclusion, in his opinion.
Andrey Petrov, head of the analytical section for the post-Soviet space of the Lomonosov MSU, said that Warlick’s principles coincided with the 5-year-old Madrid Principles and made no contribution to realization of the latter. However, Warlick reaffirmed commitment to finding a solution. The reiterated principles were announced on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Bishkek Cease-Fire Protocol.
