By Seba Aghayeva – Trend:
The EU will soon take a more principled stance on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and show will to resolve it, Nikita Isayev, political analyst, leader of the New Russia public and political movement, told Trend, Aug. 23.
“In this case, the EU may express its position on the behalf of France, which is one of the co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group,” the expert said. “Unfortunately, this will happen without paying significant attention to Russia’s position.”
The analyst noted that the principles of the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the proposals on its settlement that were previously voiced by international mediators, may change in this case.
“The current settlement principles lead to impasse and don’t resolve the conflict, they are fraught with escalation of tensions in the South Caucasus region,” he said. “The escalation of the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region is dangerous not only for the direct participants of the conflict, but for the entire region.”
According to the expert, it is necessary to find new ways for the peaceful settlement of the conflict.
The settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one of the topics of the Russian and Armenian presidents’ meeting to be held Aug. 23 in the city of Sochi, the Kremlin’s press service reported earlier.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.