KAZIMIROV: YEREVAN AND BAKU POSITIONS OVER KARABAKH STATUS STILL INCOMPATIBLE

PanARMENIAN.Net - No matter how conflicting are the political and economic assessments of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, it is another "cold shower" for those who are for the force solution of the Karabakh conflict, head of the Russian mediation mission, Russian President's plenipotentiary representative for Nagorno Karabakh, participant and Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group in 1992-1996, Ambassador Vladimir Kazimirov writes in Chance for Karabakh article in the Moskovskie Novosti (Moscow News). The publication notes, "Investors of the project hardly count more on hostilities in the region than on the soonest return of the investments - both financial and political. At the celebrities May 25 speaking of the military solution of the Karabakh problem will not be favorable, while public speakers have been playing games with the people on it for years. And no due efforts are made to establish peace in the region. Let us take as an example the talks between Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharian. It seemed as if it is difficult to overrate their importance for the settlement of the conflict, however the leaders are waiting for large international forum for that. Their fourth meeting within the past two years was held in Warsaw May 15 on the eve of the Council of Europe summit. In Warsaw Russian and French FMs and the US special representative supported the efforts of OSCE MG Co-Chairs, who have been arranging the meeting of the Presidents for a long time, calling them to a fruitful work. After a two-hour rendezvous Aliyev and Kocharian refrained from statements. The Co-Chairs expressed moderate optimism, noting the Presidents have confirmed their interest in peaceful settlement. Responses are rather contradictory: from skepticism to breaking headlines Karabakh Has Surrendered or Armenia Will Return All Seven Regions. However Armenians spoke of the latter already in the course of the war, the question is which are the concessions in return. The statements of both Presidents have shown that their positions over the main disputable issue - the status of Nagorno Karabakh - are still incompatible. It is not clear yet whether the skirmish will decline, whether the parties will return to fulfillment of their commitments in compliance with the 1995 agreement on settlement of incidents, will official Baku cut down militant rhetoric. The CoE was not suitable for the calls to return Karabakh "by all means:" the force atavisms were left outside European values long before. The problem of Karabakh settlement is itself complex. Any its component is rich with nuances, as they say "a devil in details." Only a person happy due to lack of information can dream of a quick solution of the Karabakh problem. The real difficulties are being burdened with something else pretty often. Sometimes its refusal from contacts between the parties, the dragging of the regular talks, sometimes a chase for propagandistic infusion at expense of the negotiations, sometimes sudden attacks against the mediators or appealing to other international organizations and feeble calls to gain revenge by force…"