Tweet
Karabakh Negotiations Reach Deadlock, Says Armenian Opposition
Armenia --HAK member Vladimir Karapetian at the Friday press club,
Yerevan, 09Apr2012
Nane Sahakian
24.07.2014
The internationally mediated talks aimed at finding a solution to the
protracted Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have reached an impasse, an
opposition party representative in Armenia argued on Thursday,
reacting to the latest meetings of diplomats and statements made by
the peace brokers.
In an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am),
Vladimir Karapetian, a chief foreign-policy spokesman for the
opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), also suggested that
French President Francois Hollande's proposal on holding an
Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Paris in the near future may no longer
be on the agenda as well after the parties reported no progress
following their foreign ministers' meetings with the mediators in
Brussels earlier this week.
Commenting on the July 23 statement of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group co-chairs on the
results of their meetings with Edward Nalbandian and Elmar
Mammadyarov, Karapetian, who served as an Armenian Foreign Ministry
spokesman in 2006-2008, observed that Yerevan has again failed to
persuade the mediators to blame specifically Baku for the latest surge
in violence in the Karabakh conflict zone and along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
In the statement published late on Wednesday, the United States,
Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors
James Warlick, Igor Popov and Pierre Andrieu, voiced their 'serious
concern' over the increase in tensions and violence in the region,
including "the targeted killings of civilians."
They said that during the meetings they urged the parties "to commit
themselves to avoiding casualties" and "rejected the deliberate
targeting of villages and the civilian population."
During his meeting with the mediators on Tuesday, Armenian Minister
Nalbandian reportedly raised the issue of 'intensified subversive
activities' by Azerbaijan. He highlighted what he called the
increasingly 'militaristic rhetoric' of Baku, as well as what he said
were numerous violations of the ceasefire regime along the border with
Armenia.
Last week, authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said a group of
Azerbaijanis had been arrested in the region on suspicion of espionage
and subversive activities. The unrecognized republic's police force
said the group members had killed one military serviceman and severely
wounded a civilian. Another Karabakh teenager, it said, had been
kidnapped and then brutally murdered by the alleged Azerbaijani
saboteurs.
"It is noticeable that the co-chairs try to keep the balance in their
statement. Another major circumstance is that it seems that an
Azerbaijani-Armenian summit is again delayed... and the French
president's invitation for a meeting in Paris appears to have been
removed from the agenda," Karapetian said.
In their statement issued from Vienna, the mediators also said that
they "continue to review possible security confidence building
measures and people-to-people programs with the parties" and believe
that such programs "build the trust and confidence necessary for a
lasting peace."
According to the HAK representative, while being important, these
programs still have no major influence on the negotiation process.
"The negotiation process that should bring the parties to the conflict
closer to a solution has reached a deadlock, no meetings are held,
even the co-chairs met with the foreign ministers separately. This
means that even the foreign ministers do not meet any longer, and in
this sense confidence building measures are hard to implement," he
said.
Karapetian also contended that the mediators' statements have no
influence on the border situation. "Moreover, I can say that the role
of the co-chairs in the recent period has considerably decreased," the
Armenian oppositionist said.
http://www.armenialiberty.org/content/article/25468577.html
Armenia --HAK member Vladimir Karapetian at the Friday press club,
Yerevan, 09Apr2012
Nane Sahakian
24.07.2014
The internationally mediated talks aimed at finding a solution to the
protracted Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have reached an impasse, an
opposition party representative in Armenia argued on Thursday,
reacting to the latest meetings of diplomats and statements made by
the peace brokers.
In an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am),
Vladimir Karapetian, a chief foreign-policy spokesman for the
opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), also suggested that
French President Francois Hollande's proposal on holding an
Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Paris in the near future may no longer
be on the agenda as well after the parties reported no progress
following their foreign ministers' meetings with the mediators in
Brussels earlier this week.
Commenting on the July 23 statement of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group co-chairs on the
results of their meetings with Edward Nalbandian and Elmar
Mammadyarov, Karapetian, who served as an Armenian Foreign Ministry
spokesman in 2006-2008, observed that Yerevan has again failed to
persuade the mediators to blame specifically Baku for the latest surge
in violence in the Karabakh conflict zone and along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
In the statement published late on Wednesday, the United States,
Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors
James Warlick, Igor Popov and Pierre Andrieu, voiced their 'serious
concern' over the increase in tensions and violence in the region,
including "the targeted killings of civilians."
They said that during the meetings they urged the parties "to commit
themselves to avoiding casualties" and "rejected the deliberate
targeting of villages and the civilian population."
During his meeting with the mediators on Tuesday, Armenian Minister
Nalbandian reportedly raised the issue of 'intensified subversive
activities' by Azerbaijan. He highlighted what he called the
increasingly 'militaristic rhetoric' of Baku, as well as what he said
were numerous violations of the ceasefire regime along the border with
Armenia.
Last week, authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said a group of
Azerbaijanis had been arrested in the region on suspicion of espionage
and subversive activities. The unrecognized republic's police force
said the group members had killed one military serviceman and severely
wounded a civilian. Another Karabakh teenager, it said, had been
kidnapped and then brutally murdered by the alleged Azerbaijani
saboteurs.
"It is noticeable that the co-chairs try to keep the balance in their
statement. Another major circumstance is that it seems that an
Azerbaijani-Armenian summit is again delayed... and the French
president's invitation for a meeting in Paris appears to have been
removed from the agenda," Karapetian said.
In their statement issued from Vienna, the mediators also said that
they "continue to review possible security confidence building
measures and people-to-people programs with the parties" and believe
that such programs "build the trust and confidence necessary for a
lasting peace."
According to the HAK representative, while being important, these
programs still have no major influence on the negotiation process.
"The negotiation process that should bring the parties to the conflict
closer to a solution has reached a deadlock, no meetings are held,
even the co-chairs met with the foreign ministers separately. This
means that even the foreign ministers do not meet any longer, and in
this sense confidence building measures are hard to implement," he
said.
Karapetian also contended that the mediators' statements have no
influence on the border situation. "Moreover, I can say that the role
of the co-chairs in the recent period has considerably decreased," the
Armenian oppositionist said.
http://www.armenialiberty.org/content/article/25468577.html