Players Involved in Karabakh Conflict Negotiation Process Should Speak in the Same Language

• 06.24.2016, 21:53
• Liana Hovhannisyan
•  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World,  NKR

The meeting of presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia that took place in Saint Petersburg on June 20 and the joint-statement made as the result of the meeting became subject of different interpretations. However, it seems that the sentence found in the statement "There took place a substantial exchanged of opinions regarding the pivotal issues related to the settlement"  was missed from the attention of many people. Notwithstanding the expression found in the sentence "pivotal issues" itself arises number of questions and causes confusion.

In essence in this case by "pivotal issues" the three well know international principles of the conflict settlement are meant (self-determination of people, non-use of force or threat of force and territorial integrity). Those are the principles that the sides should reach agreement on, after which the negotiations on the comprehensive peace agreement will start. The wording in the conflict resolution processes is usually stable and is not a subject to change which allows avoiding unnecessary confusion and manipulations. This is the reason why the deviation from the accepted wording in the joint-statement made after the Saint Petersburg meeting can only be considered illogical and unnecessary.

This is an important consideration that I think should not be neglected by the players involved in the Karabakh conflict negotiation process. Otherwise such a deviation from the accepted wording can result in a chaos, in which conflicting sided will start speaking in different and mutually inexplicable languages. This of course cannot contribute to the resolution of the conflict.