AGREED TO DISAGREE

WPS Agency
What the Papers Say (Russia)
January 26, 2010 Tuesday
Russia

BYLINE: Andrei Odinets, Irina Granik, Gamid Gamidov

HIGHLIGHT: NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN LEADERS IN
SOCHI LEAD NOWHERE; Meeting in Sochi ended with nothing to show for it.

The summit in Sochi became the first meeting between Dmitry
Medvedev Enhanced Coverage LinkingDmitry Medvedev -Search using:
Biographies Plus News News, Most Recent 60 Days (Russia), Ilham Aliyev
(Azerbaijan), and Serj Sargsjan (Armenia) this year. Arranging the
meeting, Moscow clearly intended to remind the international community
that it remains a leading intermediary in the process of Karabakh
conflict resolution.

Making arrangements for the meeting, Moscow spent longer negotiating
with Armenia than it did with Azerbaijan. Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov visited Yerevan to discuss Karabakh on January 13. Armenian
Defense Minister Sejran Oganjan and Karabakh President Bako Saakjan
visited Moscow then. Medvedev and Sargsjan themselves met on January
18. Last but not the least, Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew
over to Moscow where he met with Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin. Karabakh was discussed, among other matters.

Diplomats involved in preparations for the meeting, however, admitted
that nobody had expected a breakthrough – or even progress.

Azerbaijani negotiators were in a particularly bleak mood. Shortly
before the meeting in Sochi, they had discovered on Sargsjan’s official
web site a map of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh that listed occupied
Azerbaijani territories as Armenian. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
issued a formal protest, and the map was adjusted.

The meeting lived up to all these expectations – or to the lack
thereof. The presidents never even met with journalists afterwards.

Presidential Aide Sergei Prikhodko’s briefing was cancelled. It
was Lavrov who finally talked to the waiting media. He said that the
presidents had discussed principles of the Karabakh conflict resolution
formulated by the OSCE Minsk Group in December 2007 (the so called
Madrid Principles). Lavrov flatly refused to outline moot points.

"By and large, they will merely put down whatever they disagree
over on paper, and that will be that," to quote a source close to
the negotiations. It is known meanwhile that the negotiating parties
cannot agree on the interim status of Karabakh, procedures that will
determine its ultimate status, width and status of the Lachi corridor
connecting Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh.

Source: Kommersant, No 12, January 26, 2010, p. 8