RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPER CRITICIZED AZERBAIJAN FOR RELUCTANCE TO RECOGNIZE KARABAKH SEPARATE PARTY OF CONFLICT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Former plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President at the negotiations on the Armenian-Azeri conflict settlement, ambassador Valdimir Kazimirov has published an article in "Vremya-MN" Russian newspaper criticizing the position of official Baku, which refuses to recognize Nagorno Karabakh as a separate party of the conflict. "No perspicuous grounds have been given to Aliyev's objections against recognition of Stepanakert as a party of the conflict and its participation in the negotiations. But many times, when the affairs on the front were poor, Baku sought direct contacts with the representatives of Stepanakert, arranged cease-fire (even without Yerevan's participation), called it "party" in the documents," - Kazimirov writes. Meanwhile the former intermediary reminds that the mandate of the co-chairs, which was determined in 1994 by the heads of the states at OSCE Budapest summit, provided for negotiations between the parties of the conflict among whom Nagorno Karabakh was also mentioned. In the diplomat's opinion, the co-chairs' temporary concession to Baku's reluctance to resume negotiations in trilateral format doom the meeting of the personal representatives of the Armenian and Azeri Presidents begun in Prague to "imitation of negotiation process activation." "Nagorno Karabakh cannot become merely an object of the negotiations, no matter how much somebody wishes it," - Kazimirov is convinced.