July 16, 2008 - 14:44 AMT
Armenia won't make fundamental concession in Karabakh issue
Resolution of the Nagonro Karabakh conflict is unlikely in the near future, a Russian expert said.

Armenia will never make fundamental concession in the issue, Mikhail Alexandrov, head of the Caucasus department at Moscow's Institute for Commonwealth of Independent States, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter during a news conference in Yerevan.

"Armenians should put up with the fact that there will be no progress for a long time. The world is experiencing global processes caused by the economic crisis which will probably entail U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and decline of NATO. These processes will lead to shift in geopolitical balance in the region," he said.

As to the format of talks, the expert said no one except for Baku wants to replace the OSCE Minsk Group. "Transfer of the issue to another instance will change nothing," he emphasized.

"Ilham Aliyev seems to be irritated at Serzh Sargsyan's victory in the presidential election. Western countries have obviously assured Aliyev that with Ter-Petrossian coming to power in Armenia, the Karabakh problem will be resolved in favor of Azerbaijan. However, it didn't happen, so much the better," Alexandrov said.