Epress.am News from Armenia
The OSCE Minsk Group which deals with the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has done everything possible to promote the negotiation process, has proposed all reasonable options, however the two sides have not accepted them. The Minsk Group is unable to do anything further, said Azerbaijani political expert and Armenian-Azerbaijani peace resolution process participant Zardusht Alizadeh in an interview with the Azerbaijani Turan agency.
At the same time, as reported by Contact.az, the expert stressed that the co-chairs of the Minsk Group, Russia, US, and France, are not interested in the resolution of the conflict. According to Alizadeh, Russia is trying to freeze the conflict in an attempt to leave the Post-Soviet space under its influence; “The situation in Ukraine is striking proof of that.”
According to the expert, the Azerbaijani people and government are able to change the status quo. “If Azerbaijan wishes to liberate Karabakh, then they must implement deep reforms toward a policy of securing peace. Either Russia needs to collapse, or the Azerbaijani people must change. But I don’t see a political power cabable of implementing such changes” noted Alizadeh.
Alizadeh believes that in order to reach a peaceful resolution, Armenia must come out of Russia’s control, which would allow the country to take a more realistic stance and lead to compromises.
In regards to the US, Alizadeh said that “if Washington wanted, stability could be violated and bloody conflicts could begin. And the opposite, if it wanted, a peace process would begin. The US is not doing what it can in Karabakh.”
Photograph by Onnik James Krikorian