Expert: Azeri attempts to change OSCE MG format won't affect talks

March 24, 2012 - 14:10 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan has repeatedly tried to alter the format of OSCE Minsk Group, as well as transfer the issue to the UN, political expert Alexander Manasyan said.

“Azerbaijan always tried to find “suitable” mediators, believing thus it can push the negotiation process to favour it,” he told a press conference in Yerevan.

“Irrespective of whether France will be replaced by EU or not, everything will depend on immediate participants of the negotiation process. The only prerequisite for some changes may be EU's offer of proposals and attitudes, new in principle, to the conflict resolution,” he said.

“Mediators play the part of mere advisers, and they cannot force the parties to take decisions that harm them,” the expert added.

On March 23, European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted a document on Armenia, proposing to replace France’s mandate in OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement with that of the European Union. The document is to be put to vote at European Parliament’s plenary session supposedly in a month.