No Peace Process around Karabakh Now, ICG Believes

PanARMENIAN.Net - Past week the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and Armenia have issued highly critical statements and these clearly show their concerns over the negotiations process, said Director of the Caucasus project of the International Crisis Group (ICG) Sabine Freizer. In her words, the Armenian side is insisting that the principles included a reference to the Lachin corridor, and to the right to self-determination of the people of NK of their own status through a referendum. The Azerbaijani side is stating that "the principles include liberalization of the occupied territories, demilitarization of the conflict zone, and the return of all Azerbaijani IDPs." "Yet these are precisely the points that the two sides continue to disagree on - and why they were unable to sign a set of principles in Rambouillet and Bucharest. The modalities of withdrawal from Lachin and Kelbajar and the modalities of a popular vote on the status of NK were not agreed upon by the sides. This is why the co-chairs recommended that they be addressed later - in separate working groups. But in the meantime they suggested that a peace-building process start with the withdrawal of Armenian troops from five districts, to be followed by withdrawal from the other two - and return of IDPs to their homes," Freizer said.



Calling this "a tragic element", Sabine Freizer stated, "Now there is no peace process. There is not even a negotiations process. Instead the Azerbaijani side is increasingly referring to the military option. If Azerbaijan decides to take offensive action against NK and Armenia, how many more years will it be before this conflict is resolved."



In her opinion, the issue of the referendum on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is clearly one of the most sensitive points in the package that was being discussed. "As the co-chairs state: for a withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied territories to begin, the sides would have to agree on the principle that a referendum will determine final status. But the precise modalities of this referendum would be discussed in further negotiations. Thus the key issue of debate between the Armenian and Azerbaijani side of who would participate in the referendum, where and when it would be held, would be decided upon later," Freizer underscored.



She added that everything will depend on parties to conflict at the next stage. In her words, if the parties do not display political will to eliminate the differences, no other international assistance in solving the issue should be expected. «The parties should not hope for support of the international community in case the issue is solved by force,» Sabine Freizer said, reports Azeri-Press.