Russian political analyst warns against accelerated Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution option
23.05.2011,
23:58
A Russian political analyst warned today that the United States and its allies in Europe plan to accelerate their efforts to make Armenia accept a Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution option that would benefit the rival Azerbaijan.
YEREVAN, May 23. / ARKA /. A Russian political analyst warned today that the United States and its allies in Europe plan to accelerate their efforts to make Armenia accept a Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution option that would benefit the rival Azerbaijan.
Speaking at a news conference at Novosti Armenia international press center in Yerevan, Mikhail Alexandrov, an expert in the Caucasus from the Moscow-based CIS Institute, quoted U.S. Secretary of State , Hillary Clinton as saying during a February meeting with Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mamadyarov that ‘time has come to move forward in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.’
He said although such statements are being made on a regular basis by western diplomats, Clinton’s remarks, viewed against the backdrop of other related developments, suggest that the West is gearing up to pressure Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia into making concessions. As a related sign he refereed to a Nagorno-Karabakh ad hoc commission established by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe despite Armenia’s protests to step up diplomatic pressure on Armenian authorities because it is hard to do so in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group format, in which Russian cochairman would block any anti-Armenian move.
Another indication of the plan, according to him, is the appointment of a former U.S. cochairman in the Minsk Group, Mathew Bryza as ambassador to Azerbaijan. He then claimed that the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Marie Yovanovitch, is famous as a specialist in “orange” revolutions.
The Russian political analyst claimed also that that the United States relies on opposition forces in Armenia, which are ready to make concessions in the Karabakh issue, which exert pressure on the authorities through anti-government demonstrations.
Alexandrov said the United States is interested in a soonest solution of the conflict but under Azerbaijani scenario and this is why the pressure on Armenia is very likely to mount both from inside and outside.
‘The United States has a plan to build a military-political corridor stretching from the Black Sea coast to Caspian region and ties to drag Azerbaijan in that process. But the official Baku realizes that a rapprochement with Washington would spoil its relations with Moscow and Iran, but it will not deny the proposal if gets in return Nagorno-Karabakh,’ he said.
Nagorno-Karabakh, populated overwhelmingly by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan following a three-year war that left some 30,000 dead. A Russia-brokered ceasefire ended the hostilities in 1994, but peace has remained fragile since then. The current Minsk Group-mediated negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have not brought a peace agreement yet.
The latest peace plan of the international mediators calls for the Armenian withdrawal from some of the territories held by the Karabakh military, the return of displaced people, security guarantees for Karabakh and its Armenian population and the possibility of a future referendum to decide the area’s final legal status. -0-
Speaking at a news conference at Novosti Armenia international press center in Yerevan, Mikhail Alexandrov, an expert in the Caucasus from the Moscow-based CIS Institute, quoted U.S. Secretary of State , Hillary Clinton as saying during a February meeting with Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mamadyarov that ‘time has come to move forward in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.’
He said although such statements are being made on a regular basis by western diplomats, Clinton’s remarks, viewed against the backdrop of other related developments, suggest that the West is gearing up to pressure Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia into making concessions. As a related sign he refereed to a Nagorno-Karabakh ad hoc commission established by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe despite Armenia’s protests to step up diplomatic pressure on Armenian authorities because it is hard to do so in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group format, in which Russian cochairman would block any anti-Armenian move.
Another indication of the plan, according to him, is the appointment of a former U.S. cochairman in the Minsk Group, Mathew Bryza as ambassador to Azerbaijan. He then claimed that the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Marie Yovanovitch, is famous as a specialist in “orange” revolutions.
The Russian political analyst claimed also that that the United States relies on opposition forces in Armenia, which are ready to make concessions in the Karabakh issue, which exert pressure on the authorities through anti-government demonstrations.
Alexandrov said the United States is interested in a soonest solution of the conflict but under Azerbaijani scenario and this is why the pressure on Armenia is very likely to mount both from inside and outside.
‘The United States has a plan to build a military-political corridor stretching from the Black Sea coast to Caspian region and ties to drag Azerbaijan in that process. But the official Baku realizes that a rapprochement with Washington would spoil its relations with Moscow and Iran, but it will not deny the proposal if gets in return Nagorno-Karabakh,’ he said.
Nagorno-Karabakh, populated overwhelmingly by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan following a three-year war that left some 30,000 dead. A Russia-brokered ceasefire ended the hostilities in 1994, but peace has remained fragile since then. The current Minsk Group-mediated negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have not brought a peace agreement yet.
The latest peace plan of the international mediators calls for the Armenian withdrawal from some of the territories held by the Karabakh military, the return of displaced people, security guarantees for Karabakh and its Armenian population and the possibility of a future referendum to decide the area’s final legal status. -0-
