Armenian Sides did not Refuse Negotiations, Simply Their Approach has Changed

• 05.01.2016, 15:18
• Greta Avetisyan
•  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  NKR,  Analytics

It is already several days the Azerbaijani media, as well as Azerbaijani high-level officials in their speeches express the idea as if Armenia has refused to continue negotiations on Karabakh conflict settlement. Of course, this is the thesis that Azerbaijan is trying to use for its own interests, using the opportunity and building everything on a few ideas, expressed by the Armenians side. However, one can definitely say that Armenia has not refused negotiations, while Azerbaijan does its best to fail them.

This thesis started to be actively circulated after the interview of the RA President given to Bloomberg. Referring to the negotiation process, the President in his speech mentioned that it is not logical to talk about the negotiation process. Nevertheless, he also added that "some time, however, there will be negotiations, but now the situation is quite different."

The situation is different conditioned by several factors. First, Azerbaijan both during the four-day war and today, despite the reached verbal agreement to cease firing, continues the aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Second, Azerbaijan spares no effort to denounce the 1994, May 12, tripartite ceasefire agreement signed between Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Armenia, which, in fact, is the very basis of the peace process. An evidence of this is the letter of Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, which talks about the cancellation of the 1994 ceasefire agreement, accusing Armenia for this.

Azerbaijan’s efforts to fail the negotiation process and to move the settlement process to other platforms are not something new – either for the Armenian sides or for the mediators and the international community, in general. At the same time it is also a fact that the Armenian sides have always been for constructive steps giving their consent for the introduction of confidence-building mechanisms, withdrawal of snipers and other constructive proposals.

The Armenian sides today also do not refuse these constructive steps; however, the change of situation also leads to a change in the stance of the Armenian sides, which is quite logical. To hold negotiations in parallel with the military actions, expecting any progress is at least unrealistic.

It is necessary to fix the following logical sequence of processes - cessation of hostilities, creation of an atmosphere of mutual trust and only then resumption of negotiations. As it is already known the Armenian side has already put up three concrete steps to be done for the resumption of negotiation process: introduction of investigation mechanisms, addressed statements and guarantees that Azerbaijan will not resort to new aggression and terrorism against NKR people. This is the logic the Armenian sides will follow in Karabakh conflict settlement process, which, in the presence of such tense situation should be acceptable also for the mediators of the conflict settlement.