Azerbaijan, Baku, March 6 / Trend ,E.Rustamov/
The peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group and conversations at different levels between Armenia and Turkey in regard to the Armenian-Turkish relationship are two separate processes that have been going on for a while, International Alert Program on Eurasia Manager Dessislava Roussanova said.
"Improvements in one of these processes may influence positively the other and ultimately - it should influence positively the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Roussanova wrote to Trend via e-mail.
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.
"These are two parallel but separate processes. Success in both of them will most definitely influence very positively the dynamics in the region as a whole," Roussanova believes.
But a peaceful settlement of the conflict could be reached only if the dialogue and the talks continue.
There is no doubt that there is still work to be done to bring the positions of the sides close to each other and statements on both sides show us that.
The Presidents of the two countries have expressed their firm commitment to continue the talks and to continue work on reaching a political settlement to the conflict.
Presidents also acknowledge that reaching such settlement is not an easy task and it is a process that entails the establishment of conditions for carrying out confidence-building measures in the context of work on a peace settlement.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at: [email protected]
...