Official Baku Affords Compliments To Yerevan

PanARMENIAN.Net - During the past few weeks co-chairman of the Minsk group have been making serious efforts towards leading the negotiation process out of deadlock. There is indeed an impression that in this issue Russia has taken up a more passive role. As it is known, the first impulse towards resumption of negotiations came from Americans. Later on the initiative was caught up by French co-chairman Bernard Fassie who arrived in the region with a concrete package of proposals. Bernard Fassie's mission was continued by Steven Mann. Meanwhile, Russian co-chairman Yuri Merzlyakov still refrains from trips to Caucasus and follows the process from aside. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to say that Moscow is keeping away from the process. On April 19 in Moscow Steven Mann held negotiations with his Russian colleague and a high-ranking diplomat, most likely the deputy foreign minister. As for foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, he discussed the situation with his colleagues from Armenia and Azerbaijan during the conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of CIS countries. In any case, there are no grounds to assert that Russian diplomacy is refusing to support the latest initiatives of American and French co-chairmen. It is quite possible that already after a few days Yuri Merzlyakov will join the process, resumed in the Minsk group format.

To all appearance the efforts of mediators are not just a show of activity, but a real attempt to find new points of contact between the parties. Co-chairmen refused from the idea to start negotiations from the very beginning that is to say from the point where they were locked in Ramboulliet. Yerevan and Baku do not deny that the mediators have really presented new proposals for conflict regulation. However, Vardan Oskanyan thinks that it is more correct to speak not about "new principles of regulation" but "new formulations of principles". This is already something if we take into account the fact that right after the initiatives were made high-ranking diplomats in Baku and Yerevan started making quite encouraging announcements. It is obvious that there will be changes. Will they result in an outbreak in the negotiation process? Let us wait and see.

Something has evidently changed in the approach of parties. Accents of announcements made by Armenian and Azeri diplomats have shifted. Recently Vardan Oskanyan made it clear that Yerevan will agree to discuss the possible return of Armenian controlled territories out of Karabakh if Azerbaijan agrees to recognize legitimacy of the referendum, which will be held later. "If Azerbaijan acknowledges the right of Nagorno Karabakh on self-determination not at once but in future, the Armenian party is ready to discuss issues concerning elimination of war consequences - territories, refugees, etc", said the minister. This point was actually not discussed in Ramboulliet. In Ramboulliet parties could not come to agreement because of the extremely rigid position of official Baku. But now, through the lips of the head of information department Tair Tagizade, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan welcomes Vardan Oskanyan's speech, which "testifies to the constructive position of Armenia. It can be viewed as an approval of the fact that the Armenian party adheres to peaceful negotiations and realizes national interests of Armenia", said the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.
What are these compliments for? Vardan Oskanyan did not say anything new. Yet before, Yerevan had expressed readiness to withdraw military forces from the security zone if Azerbaijan recognizes the right of Karabakh to self-determination. It is obvious that Azeris have suddenly ceased fearing the word "self-determination" which is an important symptom. It is possible that Baku leaders are trying to make people believe that recognizing the right to self-determination is not that dangerous. Commenting on his own words, Tagizade says that self-determination can function within Azerbaijan too. "Under self-determination we should understand giving a special status of autonomy in the structure of Azerbaijan" the diplomat says. However it is already not important what Azeris consider a desirable result of self-determination. By the way the people of Karabakh have already approved their readiness to conduct another referendum on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. On Wednesday Arkady Ghukasyan said that the new referendum is quite possible since international community did not recognize the results of the referendum held in 1991.

Thus, there have been quite constructive announcements in all the three capitals involved in the conflict. Those statements allow hoping for if not an outbreak, but at least progress in the negotiation process. What is also important is that those things happen on the eve of Ilham Aliev's visit to Washington. It appears that George Bush will appreciate Aliev's readiness to review the rigid approaches, which brought to the failure of Ramboulliet meeting. Maybe this is what the Azeri diplomacy is relying on.