Elmira Tariverdiyeva, commentator of Trend's European desk
The next visit of OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement ended. According to the mediators, the first trip in the new year was aimed at defining an action program for 2011.
After meetings in Yerevan with Armenian president, foreign minister and defence minister, the co-chairs refused to comment on the talks, without saying anything concrete upon arrival in Baku as well. French co-chair Bernard Fassier said only that the current MG mission is to promote the going efforts to advance the basic principles on peaceful resolution of the conflict.
After the visit, the OSCE Minsk Group published a traditional statement that again urged the parties to the peaceful resolution of territorial dispute. All these would be not so important, if there would not be several events around the Nagorno-Karabakh, which have occurred over recent period.
In the statement, co-chairs finally made some specificity. According to them, the time has arrived for decisive action on behalf of peace to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
It is possible that the OSCE Minsk Group has real preconditions for such statements. After the disappointment from the OSCE Astana summit in December, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicting sides and the mediators did not slow down the negotiations, continuing to work to find solutions.
Moscow hosted talks between Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian foreign ministers Elmar Mammadyarov, Edward Nalbandian and Sergei Lavrov on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on Jan. 25.
Intensive consultations are underway among the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Anvar Azimov said on Thursday. The frequency of such meetings shows the seriousness of the work carried out in this format and the focus of the parties on specific and practical results.
"Thus, a proper basis is being developed for a new meeting of the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders," Azimov said at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna.
In the near future, it is also possible to expect the involvement of EU in the negotiation process around Nagorno-Karabakh.
"The unresolved conflicts in the South Caucasus continue to represent the primary threats to the region's stability," EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby said at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna today, emphasizing that the security situation in Nagorno-Karabakh was of particular concern.
It is really time for mediators to think about that the status-quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement threatens to destabilize the entire region that will impact on foreign players as well. Tensions in the region significantly increases, which is supported by statements from both sides. Azerbaijan is losing patience because of the prolonged occupation of its lands on the backdrop of provocative actions by the Armenian side, which threatens with the recognition of independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, calls for the recognition of another "Armenian genocide" by Azerbaijan, and speculates the example of a referendum in Southern Sudan.
At a meeting with the co-chairs, the defence minister of Azerbaijan Safar Abiyev said that the country would resort to any methods to liberate its territories, including through the force component.
In this case, Baku, who has so long hoped for progress in the peace process, now looks forward to the international community and requires a direct pressure on Yerevan to withdraw from seven occupied Azerbaijani districts. Otherwise, Azerbaijan does not see the effect of talks on the need for a speedy resolution of the conflict.
In addition, on the eve of the OSCE Minsk Group's visit, the International Crisis Group, which consists of leading experts and analysts, issued a report "Azerbaijan and Armenia: Preventing War".
The report noted that the tensions in the region are growing on the backdrop of deteriorated situation on the line of contact and the failure of peace talks, which would make a new armed conflict in the South Caucasus far more deadly than the 1992-1994 one that ended with a shaky truce, the report said.
According to Crisis Group experts, Regional alliances could pull in Russia, Turkey and Iran. Vital oil and gas pipelines near the front lines would be threatened.
Given the above-mentioned, the mediators must understand that in this situation Baku has every reason to be impatient, while Armenia has no right to delay the negotiations, continue finding more and more absurd pretexts to maintain the status quo.