Status quo in Karabkh has never been this much stable as now, experts says

YEREVAN, June 6. /ARKA/. Status quo in Nagorno -Karabakh Republic has never been so much stable as it is now, Head of Political Studies Department of the Caucasus Institute Sergey Minasyan says. 

“The attempts undertaken by Azerbaijan during negotiation period to change the status quo in the conflict zone by applying to belligerent rhetoric and threats gave food for the opposite effect actually- status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh has never been this much strong, as it is now” Minasyan said. 

According to him, Azerbaijani rhetoric and threats just pushed all actors of the conflict to speak more about keeping status quo, setting mechanisms of trust in Karabakh conflict zone and on Armenian-Azerbaijani border, rather than about serious changes in the process of talks.

The expert added that the only thing Azerbaijan has got is senseless deaths of its soldiers, no any other results have been achieved. 

The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1988 after the predominantly Armenian-populated Karabakh declared about secession from Azerbaijan. 

As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the Karabakh’s government, the Armenian majority voted in 1991, December 10, to secede from Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the enclave the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. Full-scale fighting, initiated by Azerbaijan, erupted in the late winter of 1992. International mediation by several groups including Europe's OSCE’s failed to bring an end resolution that both sides could work with. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces got control over outside the enclave itself. By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also held and currently control seven regions beyond the administrative borders of Nagorno-Karabakh. Almost 1 million people on both sides have been displaced as a result of the conflict. A Russian- -brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan. -0-