Azerbaijani political analyst: Armenia has agreed to liberate seven occupied regions of Azerbaijan long ago

How do you assess the statements byOSCE Minsk Group about the Munich meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan?

Such statements must be treated with an extra dose of skepticism, because the main part of the talks between the presidents is strictly a one-on-one type talk, and co-chairs of the Minsk Group are satisfied with only with the information which they released on results of this meeting. Fassier and other co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group have been doing this kind of optimistic statements before.

The fact that the presidents have been negotiating for four hours, shows that the heads of state were able to share enough information and had raised a lot of issues. At the same time, we can assume that the subject of the conversation were the 7 occupied regions around the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh.

But the fact that the matter was referred to the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, suggests that the degree of preparedness on this issue is not high. Both ministers will have a lot of work, so the presidents can have some new "food" for negotiations. Thus, I think that Azerbaijan and Armenia are in the beginning, perhaps of the final stage of negotiations.

How do you comment on the panic publications of the Armenian press, where they claim that the return of the 7 occupied areas is the subject of negotiations?

This question is quite real and decisive. There are 4 UN Security Council resolutions which demand liberation of Azerbaijan's occupied lands. In addition, all world powers support the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, which primarily involves the liberation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia. In addition, there is international practice which dictates the Armenian withdrawal from occupied territories. If Armenia delays this step, it will face  indignation of the world community and even the part that is sympathetic. This will cost a lot for Armenia.

Armenia has long agreed to liberate seven occupied regions of Azerbaijan long ago. Another thing is that it wants to present it not as an obligatory step, but as a compromise in exchange for recognition of the independence of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh to which Azerbaijan will never agree.

Do you think that Azerbaijan should become initiator of reforming the OSCE Minsk Group?

It had to be done 3-5 years ago. Now, the situation is completely different, and I think that changes in the staff of the OSCE Minsk do not meet  interests of Azerbaijan.

At the moment, there are new trends in the region which reject territorial seizures. On the other hand, the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement will inevitably affect relations between South Caucasian states. Besides, Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on the Karabakh issue are going in the right direction for Baku. All this makes a change in the composition of the OSCE Minsk at this time inappropriate.

Will Armenia ratify the Armenian-Turkish minutes before Turkey?

I consider this kind of thing happening is quite possible.


/Day.Az/