Int'l community increases pressure on Azerbaijan, Armenia to reach solution: British expert

“If there is no any progress in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, development of Turkish-Armenian relations will be difficult,” British Chatman House expert Neil McFarlane said.

He said the protocols require ratification, which created difficulties both in Armenia and Turkey.

McFarlane said the “genocide” issue was also a serious obstacle for the Turkey-Armenia normalization.

The expert said he positively valued the process. In his opinion, profiles of solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are clear now.

“The international community increased pressure on the sides to reach solution. The question is whether this pressure will lead to the positive results.”

McFarlane believes that the key to achieve peace in Nagorno-Karabakh is to determine status of this territory.

He reminded that Azerbaijan promised has maximum autonomy, which included local police, military forces, independent local tax system, establishing of special relations with Armenia, rights for migration control and international guarantee for that.

“I don’t think that Azerbaijan will accept this concept of autonomy, but if the sides are interested in the agreement, it is possible to find different options”.

The expert said he didn’t believe the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh will resume again.

As regard to Western interests in the South Caucasus, McFarlane said Americans are interested much more in the relations with Russia and they didn’t want it to be an obstacle for the developments in the Caucasus.

He said Europe also had no a single approach to the region.

/APA/