POLITICAL SCIENTIST SERGEY MARKEDONOV: "SERIOUS DEGRADATION HAS BEEN OBSERVED IN THE ADVANCEMENT TO THE PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT THROUGH THE PAST YEAR"

Today.Az, Azerbaijan
June 11 2008

The meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan was not
expected to attain any breakthrough or serious progress in Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, said Sergey Markedonov, political scientist and
chief of department for international relations of the Institute for
political and military analysis during Moscow-Yerevan-Baku TV bridge.

The first meeting of presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan Serzh
Sarkissyan and Ilham Aliyev, whose main achievement has become a
decision to continue talks in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group on
the basis of Madrid principles was held in Saint-Petersburg on June 6.

According to Markedonov, there were two main approaches to the meeting-
one can be called a journalistic one, which attached importance to
the meeting as infomation.

The second approach, according to the political scientist, can be
called an expert one, which considers the context.

"Speaking on the context, I would not say that it envisioned any
breakthrough or serious achievements", said Markedonov.

The political scientist noted that the Armenian president can not be
called a newcomer in the Nagorno Karabakh problem or policy, as he
started his career in Nagorno Karabakh, beginning from the party times,
led the armed forces of the self-declared "Nagorno Karabakh Republic",
was a Defense Minister of Armenia.

Speaking about the private and military-political contexts of the
parties around this meeting, Markedonov said serious degradation has
been observed in the advancement to peaceful resolution through the
past year.

"In 2007 the number of fire exchange and crashes on the ceasefire
line was thrice higher along with the number of victims as compared to
2006. A military crash has been observed on March 4-5 and it became the
most serious one since imposing of ceasefire region in May of 2994",
said Markedonov.

At the same time, the Russian political scientist stressed existence of
a serious militaristic rhetorics, mainly from the side of Azerbaijan,
which considers itself to be a losing side.

"The main result is that the meeting has taken place, it is better
to meet and negotiate and this is a positive result, yet it is not
possible to speak about any breakthrough, as the sides base not only
on different assessments on the situation but the very philosophy of
the conflict", noted Markedonov.

In particular, he said if for Azerbaijan "aggression" is implied
and the defining factor is Armenia while for Armenia this is the
self-determination of Nagorno Karabakh, where Armenia just helps and
ensures this self-determination.

I do not see at least 2-3 points on which the sides would have been
ready for a compromise. The philosophy and picture of conflict is
too different, merely the meeting participants have discussed it at
the meeting once again", resumed Markedonov.

/Novosti-Armenia/

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