Russian analyst: Baku is ready to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by force

Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers are expected to meet in Almaty today on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting. In your opinion, what will be result of this meeting?

I have read opinion of both the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and Armenian press. Armenian Foreign Ministry says it does not plan to hold discussions in Kazakhstan. It is hard to predict something given this statement. I think the talks will take place without any noticeable results.

May Hillary Clinton’s recent tour of the South Caucasus have impact on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution?  

It seems that Hillary Clinton mainly discussed Armenia-Turkey normalization which is much more important for the United States than resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The fact that Turkey was openly dissatisfied with Clinton’s visit to Armenia and some of her statements proves this.  

Issue of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was likely to be ritual in Clinton’s talks in Yerevan because this issue is raised constantly during visits of high-rank West officials to the region. The Western guests always state that they are ready to make every effort to help to resolve the conflict peacefully as soon as possible. In turn, Armenia says that people of Nagorno-Karabakh allegedly should be given independence. That is it. In other words, attempts of leaders of the co-chairing countries to interfere with the resolution process fail to change the situation. We have observed this state of affairs over the last three years.  

Leaders of France, the United States and Russia made a statement just for the sake of statement. As they say, we are all peacemakers. In its turn, Armenia does not want the status quo to change. Unfortunately, I see no movements in the conflict resolution in the coming year.

In your opinion, how far resumption of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh is real?

Baku is ready to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by military means. However, we must remember that Azerbaijan will face pressure from both Moscow and the West. Co-chairing  countries are not interested in armed conflict in the Caucasus. They are more interested in a frozen conflict. They want their personal interests to be taken into account. They want conflicting sides to turn to them constantly as arbitrators. Russia does not differ from America or Western Europe in this case.


/Day.Az/