USA, Washington, August 6 / Trend N. Bogdanova /
Major problem with settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is that Armenia does not make required concessions. It complicates negotiating process, research assistant of international security program, research director and Caspian studies project in the Belfer center, Brenda Shaffer, said in interview with Trend .
She said that bilateral visits of Armenian-Azerbaijani intelligentsia to Nagorno-Karabakh are important. But people fail to solve this problem without support of great powers. I refer countries having their interests in the region to great powers. They must impact on Armenia. But they have not made it yet," Shaffer said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7 districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Expert said that unfortunately, international community preserves irresponsible position towards frozen conflict. Now these great powers try to pretend that they actively participate in this process and want to change current situation. They stress that everything depends on sides of conflict now. But it is not true," Shaffer said.
"Loading all responsibility on sides of conflict, great powers more freeze negotiating process, expert said. For example, Shaffer said that Russia can impact on Armenia in exchange for peace with Azerbaijan. But Shaffer does not see any active actions in this sphere. Meetings of presidents in Russia are being organized to create vision that there is any action."