PanARMENIAN.Net

Mediators Believe in Possible Agreement

Co-chairmen of the Minsk group assert that there are
grounds for optimism.

26.05.2006 GMT+04:00

The regular visit of OSCE Minsk group co-chairmen has
come to the end. This visit can hardly be called
regular due to a number of specific differences from
the previous visits of mediators in Yerevan and Baku.
Firstly, this time the co-chairmen arrived in full
staff which has not been the case of at least half a
year. After the unsuccessful meeting of the two
presidents in Ramboulliet, mediators arrived in
Yerevan and Baku individually. Early in 2006 Bernard
Fassier twice came to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Steven
Mann has also visited Aliev and Kocharyan. As for the
Russian mediator Yuri Merzlyakov, he looked to be
keeping away. The joint visit of cochairmen confirms
that co-chairman states are again in the same team.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Another unprecedented circumstance
is that this time co-chairmen were joined by
high-ranking representatives of foreign policy
structures of countries, involved in the mediatorial
mission – Russian deputy foreign minister Grigory
Karasin, US State Secretary’s assistant Daniel Fried
and the political issues director of French Foreign
Ministry Stanislas d’Labule.

Last year the co-chairmen were twice accompanied in
regional visits by the former deputy foreign minister
of Russia Vyacheslav Trubnikov. The stately delegation
staff is first of all aimed at demonstrating
seriousness of the peacemakers’ intensions. This can
also be proved by the mediators’ announcements made
after their meetings with Aliev and Kocharyan. `The
joint mission is an extraordinary undertaking. It
should be taken as an evidence of seriousness of our
approach towards conflict regulation and of our common
conviction that we are on a stage when mutually
beneficial agreement is reachable’; it is said in two
similar documents.

The third peculiarity of the visit is that this time
co-chairmen limited themselves to visiting Baku and
Yerevan and did not consider it expedient to get
acquainted with the position of official Stepanakert.
There would not be anything special here if not a
singe detail: according to the Baku `Trend’
information agency, before the start of negotiations
with the Azeri foreign minister Elmar Mamedyarov,
delegation members had a working meeting with the
deputy foreign minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov. But
for some reason the meeting was also participated by
Nizami Bakhmanov who is called in Baku the `leader of
Azeri community of Nagorno-Karabakh’. Did mediators
know that Bakhmanov was going to wait for them in
Azimov’s office or it was unexpected for them?
Unfortunately journalists present at the briefing of
mediators in Yerevan could not ask them about that.

The same source also reports about the existence of
agreements concerning a number of meetings of the US
State Secretary’s assistance Daniel Fried in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Administration of
the President of Azerbaijan. It may be assumed that
the matter concerns separate meetings, without the
participation of diplomats from Russia and France.
What did Fried discuss with the representatives of
Aliev’s administration? This question gaining special
significance in the context of the quite noteworthy
article in Baku published `Express’ newspaper.
Referring to informed sources in Washington, the
author of the article asserts that `Pentagon has
applied to the US Congress with a request to assign 43
million dollars for the reconstruction of four
military aerodromes in Azerbaijan and creation of
anti-missile defense and radio-electronic intelligence
systems’. If it turns out that this sensational news
has at least anything with reality it will become the
first symptom testifying to the existence of certain
principal agreements between George Bush and Ilham
Aliev. It is worth reminding that late in April Ilham
Aliev was `called’ to Washington for discussing
Azerbaijan’s position in case of military actions
against Iran. If Aliev really promised Bush to provide
military base for attacking Iran, it is clear that he
will be counting on the White House’s `services’ in
Karabakh issue. In any case, the existence of
agreements between Washington and Baku concerning
Azerbaijan’s participation in anti-Iranian coalition
will have a negative impact on the regulation process
of Karabakh conflict. Nevertheless, it is still a big
question – is it worth relying on the sources of
`Express’ newspaper? Though the sensational
information published in the paper have not yet been
denied by anyone.
«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department