Baku, Azerbaijan, May 18
By Anakhanum Idayatova - Trend:
The negotiations are always better in the conflict settlement than hostilities, a Russian expert told Trend via e-mail May 18, commenting on the Nagorno Karabakh issue.
"The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement requires compromises to which Azerbaijan and Armenia are not ready yet, so the conflict settlement will be delayed," said Leonid Gusev, a senior research fellow at the Analytical Center of the International Studies Institute at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
"It is important that the situation on the line of contact not to turn into a direct military confrontation," the expert stressed, adding that it may have negative consequences for the entire region.
A meeting was held in Vienna May 16 involving President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, French Minister of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, and Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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