Baku: Breakthrough Chances in Karabakh Peace Settlement not Lost

PanARMENIAN.Net - «If Russia is really inclined to give the go-ahead to the process of settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, I suppose Putin would like to keep the fame of a peacemaker for himself and not to present it to Chirac or Bush,» Azeri political scientist Rasim Musabekov said. In his words, Russian politicians will reserve sensational breakthrough in the Karabakh settlement (if the Kremlin considers time has come for it) to announce about these in Moscow. He rules out Russia supposes to finish the affair in Moscow. «Then there will be another difficult, but useless tour of talks in Washington,» Musabekov remarked. When commenting on the «breakdown of the meeting» in Rambouillet, he remarked that optimism of the mediators was artificial. «The outcome of the meeting did not surprise me. It was not managed to bring stands of the parties closer and I can hardly imagine it, unless Armenians give up their intention to separate Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan, incidentally seizing Lachin and even Kelbajar regions as a corridor,» the political scientist said.



«If Heydar Aliyev did not agree to it ten years ago, when Azerbaijan «was in fact internationally isolated, had a disorganized army, empty treasury, why should we agree to it today, when the economic and financial advantage of Azerbaijan over Armenia is evident? Thus there can be no peace in the region without a stepwise settlement plan and urging Armenians to give up diplomatically formalizing the outcome of their military victory (achieved along with Russians),» Musabekov added. Azerbaijan is sure that the year 2006 will sum up some efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group. «Owing to absence of a practical outcome of the talks, arms race with the risk of turning the current unstable «neither peace, nor war» state into an escalation is inevitable. However, chances for a breakthrough in the peace settlement are not fully lost yet,» he concluded, reports Day.az.