Political scientist Sergey Markedonov: "Serious degradation has been observed in the advancement to the peaceful resolution of Nagorno Karabakh conflict through the past year"

The meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan was not expected to attain any breakthrough or serious progress in Nagorno Karabakh conflict, said Sergey Markedonov, political scientist and chief of department for international relations of the Institute for political and military analysis during Moscow-Yerevan-Baku TV bridge.

The first meeting of presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan Serzh Sarkissyan and Ilham Aliyev, whose main achievement has become a decision to continue talks in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group on the basis of Madrid principles was held in Saint-Petersburg on June 6.

According to Markedonov, there were two main approaches to the meeting- one can be called a journalistic one, which attached importance to the meeting as infomation.

The second approach, according to the political scientist, can be called an expert one, which considers the context.

"Speaking on the context, I would not say that it envisioned any breakthrough or serious achievements", said Markedonov.

The political scientist noted that the Armenian president can not be called a newcomer in the Nagorno Karabakh problem or policy, as he started his career in Nagorno Karabakh,  beginning from the party times, led the armed forces of the self-declared "Nagorno Karabakh Republic", was a Defense Minister of Armenia.

Speaking about the private and military-political contexts of the parties around this meeting, Markedonov said serious degradation has been observed in the advancement to peaceful resolution through the past year.

"In 2007 the number of fire exchange and crashes on the ceasefire line was thrice higher along with the number of victims as compared to 2006. A military crash has been observed on March 4-5 and it became the most serious one since imposing of ceasefire region in May of 2994", said Markedonov.

At the same time, the Russian political scientist stressed existence of a serious militaristic rhetorics, mainly from the side of Azerbaijan, which considers itself to be a losing side.

"The main result is that the meeting has taken place, it is better to meet and negotiate and this is a positive result, yet it is not possible to speak about any breakthrough, as the sides base not only on different assessments on the situation but the very philosophy of the conflict", noted Markedonov.

In particular, he said if for Azerbaijan "aggression" is implied and the defining factor is Armenia while for Armenia this is the self-determination of Nagorno Karabakh, where Armenia just helps and ensures this self-determination.

I do not see at least 2-3 points on which the sides would have been ready for a compromise. The philosophy and picture of conflict is too different, merely the meeting participants have discussed it at the meeting once again", resumed Markedonov.

/Novosti-Armenia/