Problems remain unsettled after the OSCE summit

PanARMENIAN.Net - Most apparently, the reason for these conclusions was the statement of the OSCE CiO's Special Representative Heikki Talvitie, who claimed that the year of 2008 proved useful for resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "Next year Greece will assume the OSCE presidency and much will depend on how Athens will integrate into the process of the Karabakh conflict regulation," said Talvitie, adding that the meetings between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents can be viewed as important steps towards the conflict settlement.

If we convert the diplomat's words into common language, it proves that neither changes, nor progress can be observed in the regulation process, because all the statements in the declaration are given in the subjunctive mood, which, as we all know, is a most suitable way to conceal one's inability of affecting the developments in the South Caucasus region. It happened in Georgia in the August of 2008, and it is what we have been experiencing in Karabakh for 20 years already.

Meanwhile, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov declares: "The Foreign Ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair states have submitted some changes in Madrid principles concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. I am sure that either a ministerial or a presidential meeting will follow a thorough analysis of these changes." By the way, the Armenian Foreign Minister in no way commented on Mammadyarov's statement. Thus, either the statement is true or it is the Azeri Foreign Minister's heart's desire… And the changes are quite incomprehensible like the principles themselves, which aren't yet made public. Most likely, there are some secret things about which it is still rather early to speak, but shouldn't the Armenians, or to be more exact, the Karabakh people know about it? After all, it is their fate that is at stake. Here one may unwittingly draw an analogy with the pact «Molotov-Ribbentrop», whose particulars became known only 50 years later.

In the meantime, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian informs the OSCE Ministerial Council that Azerbaijan misinterprets all the provisions of the Moscow Declaration. "Baku goes as far as stating, in particular, that the peaceful settlement does not exclude use of force. I wonder if there is any other state here, around this table, which could have such interpretation of the very clear notion of the 'peaceful political settlement'," Nalbandian notes.

According to RA FM, despite all this Armenia would like to hope that the two sides of the conflict will be able to maintain the spirit and the positive momentum of the Moscow declaration and will advance towards the resolution of the conflict. "This was also the vision of the declaration made yesterday by the three Co-Chair countries in framework of our Ministerial meeting," the Minister said.

The declaration signed in Helsinki by the Co-Chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group says: "The Moscow Declaration opened a new and promising phase in our shared endeavor to expand peace in the South Caucasus. In that declaration, the Presidents reaffirm their commitment to advancing a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the framework of the Basic Principles developed by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs in collaboration with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis of their proposals advanced last year in Madrid. We call on the parties to work with the Co-Chairs to finalize the Basic Principles in coming months, and then begin drafting a comprehensive peace settlement as outlined by those agreed principles. We reiterate our firm view that there is no military solution to the conflict and call on the parties to recommit to a peaceful resolution."

In a word, it is one of those usual non-binding and pointless documents, of which the Karabakh people have seen a lot in the long process of the conflict «regulation».