International community expects Armenia's 'non-standard approaches' to Karabakh - opinion

Hripsime Hovhannisyan

The intensive frequency of the talks, arranged on the level of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, creates the kind of impression that the international community expects the Armenian authorities' non-standard steps or non-equivalent solutions with respected to the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict, according to Suren Sargsyan, an expert in international affairs.

In an interview with Tert.am, Sargssan referred particularly to the explicit remarks and hints made repeatedly by official representatives of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair states. "In his congratulatory address to [Prime Minister] Nikol Pashinyan, the US President said he expects his non-standard steps with respect to the Karabakh issue. But non-popular steps in the case of Nagorno-Karabakh imply non-equivalent solutions," he added.

Sargsyan noted that before his video conference with Elmar Mammadyarov, the foreign minister of Azerbaijan, FM Zohrab Mnatsakanyan had held a telephone conversation with Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker.

"Unfortunately, we have very little information about the conversation, as we do not even know who initiated the call. It is notable at least that no call of the kind had preceded the meeting with Azerbaijan['s foreign minisiter]," he added.  

Asked whether the ongoing processes can be described as real negotiations, Sargsyan noted that the statements made over the past two years have been different in substance.

"The authorities avoided using  'negotiations', referring to them [the discussions] as meetings, consultations, etc. Also, they tried to avoid the term 'authorities of the Artsakh Republic' What they initially said 'there isn't a document in the negotiations' but later alleged that it isn't being negotiated at all as it was just a document which had been earlier subject to discussion. They said there is not a step-by-step option on the table, but it later turned out that there actually was. Hence, the contradictions vary in range, with the information being really vast. If we guide ourselves exclusively by official statements, we will have an outcome totally differing from the statement made  by the Russian foreign minister for instance," he added.

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The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1988 when the Armenian majority of the then autonomous region declared its intention to break away from Azerbaijan. In a referendum held on December 10, 1991 (days before the collapse of the USSR), the population voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence (99.89%). The move was followed by Azerbaijan’s large-scale military operations against Nagorno-Karabakh and seven neighboring regions. The armed violence left around 25,000-30,000 people dead; thousands were internally displaced. The Ceasefire Accord, which went into effect in May 1994, formally put an end to the armed attacks in the conflict zone, but there is still periodic fighting in the area. Since 1994, the OSCE Minsk Group, a mission co-chaired by France, the United States and Russia, has been spearheading the efforts towards  a peaceful solution to the conflict. .

The hostilities escalated to an unprecedented degree in April 2016 in what was later dubbed a Four-Day War. In the early hours of April 1, 2016, Azerbaijan's armed forces launched heavy offensives along the Line of Contact,  provoking large-scale confrontations with the Defense Army of Nagorno-Kkarabakh. The adversary also shelled civilian settlements, particularly the southern and north-eastern regions of Hadrut and Marakert.

A ceasefire was reached on 5 April between the chiefs of the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow. The Nagorno-Karabakh authorities also welcomed the verbal agreement.