Armenian politician: "If imitation attempts "to interfere" with the conflict resolution continue, no progress will be attained in the Karabakh issue"

"The Moscow declaration once again fixed Russia's position in the Caucasus region, but it was not resulting from the logics of the conflict settlement", said Kiro Manoyan, head of the Central office of Ay Data for political issues noting that other countries, including Turkey will continue taking imitative steps within the next few months aimed at creating appearance of a positive achievement in the resolution of the Karabakh issue.

"In fact, these steps may promote improvement of relations between Armenia and Turkey and Armenia and Azerbaijan, but the Karabakh issue will not be settled", said Manoyan.

Commenting on the declaration signing, Manoyan said definite powers started the process of the Karabakh conflict settlement in favor of their own interests.

"The declaration has its minuses and pluses. The greatest minus is that Karabakh is involved into the negotiation process, but the declaration is not undersigned by a Karabakh representative", said Manoyan noting that the reason for concerns is also the reference in the declaration to the Madrid proposals in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, as they raise the issue of return of the liberated lands.

Yet, he considers that the declaration has its advantages, fixing that the conflict will be settled only by a political way and it does not mention the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

"Unfortunately, this is just a declaration, not a contract and, therefore, it does not contain any binding mechanisms. The settlement of the issue with participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs is also important, as it does not imply involvement of other forces in the negotiation process", said Manoyan.

According to him, if the attempts "to interfere" with the conflict resolution continue, no progress will be fixed in the Karabakh issue.
"It will be possible to settle the issue, if the conflict sides, including Karabakh, sign a contract on the peaceful resolution of the conflict and use due mechanisms, ensuring observance of paragraphs of the agreement", said Manoyan.

/Regnum/