In Vienna Azerbaijan Continued Its Policy Adopted in April

• 05.22.2016, 13:32
• Greta Avetisyan
•  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  NKR,  Analytics

After April four-day war Azerbaijan is trying to "get rid of" the 1994 and 1995 ceasefire agreements. Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting in Vienna should have played an important role in this regard and show whether it would be possible to make Azerbaijan carry out its commitments.

In this context it is important to pay attention to several factors. First, in the statement of the Foreign Minister of the OSCE MG co-chair countries, the importance of keeping the 1994 and 1995 agreements is being mentioned only by the Co-Chairs, which obviously shows that in Vienna as well Azerbaijan continued the policy that it adopted at the beginning of April. After April four-day war Azerbaijan has stressed not once as if these events denounced the 1994 and 1995 ceasefire agreements. The fact that it is Azerbaijan that avoids referring to 1994 and 1995 ceasefire agreements is also evidenced by the fact that before sitting around the same table with Aliyev, the RA President during his bilateral talks with the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and the US Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the need for the unconditional implementation of the ceasefire agreements.

Second, Azerbaijan, both after the April tension and the Vienna meeting has started to refer mostly to the verbal agreement reached between the Chiefs of Staffs of the Armed Forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow on April 5. The "call" of the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Mahmud Mammadguliyev to the international community "to condemn Armenia for violating the ceasefire regime and demand to strictly comply with the commitments of ceasefire undertaken on April 5, 2016" is vivid evidence to this.

The fact that it is the Co-Chairs that in their joint statement mentioned the importance of keeping the 1994 and 1995 agreements shows that the policy of Azerbaijan that it adopted after the April tensions is not acceptable for them as well. Another question is what steps they undertake for this. Until the ceasefire agreement is put under question by Azerbaijan, to talk about the resumption of negotiations, moreover to talk about any progress in this process is illogical.

It is the responsibility of the mediators, especially Russia, that is the mediator of 1994 ceasefire agreement, to take steps and bring Azerbaijan back to the reality. One of the first steps should be addressed statements, which were not made in Vienna as well.