ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN: OSCE WANTS CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS TO HELP KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS
Haroutiun Khachatrian

Eurasianet
eav040209af.shtml
April 2, 2009

As the talks on Nagorno-Karabakh remain stalemated, diplomats
moderating the negotiations recently called on 40 civil society
representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan and the disputed region to
make a difference in the peace process.

The Azerbaijani-Armenian Peace Forum, held in Vienna on March 24-27,
is the latest in a series of such meetings sponsored by London-based
International Alert, a non-governmental group that describes itself as
"an international peace-building" organization. International Alert
has been involved in the South Caucasus since 1996.

To secure attendees’ interest in trilateral discussions, the three
co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s
Minsk Group, which moderates the Karabakh talks, shared details about
the negotiations’ status — the co-chair’s first such briefing with
civil society representatives.

"The status of Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be agreed on now, as both
suggested solutions — international recognition of Karabakh as
an independent state, and its return back into Azerbaijan — are
now impossible," France’s Ambassador Bernard Fassier elaborated
on March 24. The so-called Madrid Principles, a framework for the
negotiations, "are aimed at . . . First, return of the regions around
Nagorno-Karabakh [to] the control of Azerbaijan; second: Reaching an
agreement about a temporary status of Nagorno-Karabakh."

Fassier’s explanation came as a surprise for many of the Armenian
civil society participants present; supporters of ex-president Levon
Ter-Petrosian have speculated that President Serzh Sargsyan is close
to an agreement with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Karabakh’s
final status that would not be optimal for Armenia.

The co-chairs noted that lingering mutual hostility in Armenia and
Azerbaijan is burdening consensus-building efforts. "Our impression is
that the two presidents, Sargsyan and Aliyev, are closer to reaching a
consensus, than the populations in their [respective] countries are,"
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian
Affairs Matthew Bryza, the American co-chairman, said. Bryza called
for cooperation between civil society representatives and government
officials in improving public support for compromise.

Bryza also expressed optimism about recent developments in relations
between Armenia and Turkey, a key Azerbaijani ally that closed its
Armenian border in 1993 in response to the war with Azerbaijan
over Nagorno-Karabakh. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. The American diplomat underlined that relations between
Armenia and Turkey may normalize soon, which could help Yerevan and
Baku reach a "breakthrough" in Karabakh.

With an eye to Moscow’s 2008 war with Georgia over breakaway South
Ossetia, Yuri Merzliakov, the Russian co-chairman, also stressed the
importance of mutual trust in the South Caucasus region. Merzliakov
expressed regret that Azerbaijan had rejected the recent appeal of
the co-chairs to remove snipers from the frontline.

The three co-chairmen declined further elaboration about the
negotiations. Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, personal representative of
OSCE Chairman-in-Office, and Charalampos Christopoulos, special envoy
of the OSCE Chairman-in-office for frozen conflicts, also attended
the meeting.

Participants in the forum discussed the possibility of holding
mutual visits on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, as well as online
discussions and lectures. Details on such initiatives remain in
the works. A final document, adopted without the co-chairmen’s
participation, agreed with the Minsk Group that "civil society is
insufficiently informed and is misinformed." It added that "language
of enmity is used increasingly."

Editor’s Note: Haroutiun Khachatrian is a Yerevan-based freelance
writer who attended the Azerbaijani-Armenian Peace Forum in Vienna.