ArmInfo. Since victorious Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group mediators proved unable to persuade Azerbaijan into recognizing Artsakh's independence or agreeing its joining Armenia for 25 years, Baku's agreeing to that after the November 9 statement was signed can hardly be imagined, the public and political figure Vahram Atanesyan said in an interview with ArmInfo.
"Decisions always proceed from potential - resources. So expecting any solutions to the issue of Artsakh's status with Armenia's resources minimal in all respects is, so to say, unrealistic. We are, in fact, 'offside' now. Ukraine has eliminated even a theoretical possibility of international unity on the issue. A cold war is being waged, and the only way of combining international efforts is achieving a final settlement of the Artsakh problem by means of negotiations," Mr Atanesyan said.
This being so, the parties agreeing to "freeze" discussions on the Artsakh problem is the only optimal option. As regards border delimitation and demarcation, as well as normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, these processes can follow their course, with no relation to specification of Artsakh's status. The issue of status must remain as status quo in the form of Russian peacekeepers' presence.
A final solution to the problem of Artsakh's status is a matter of the distant future, with regional stability and Azerbaijan's political constructivity being a compulsory condition for that. In other words, it is an Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement on normalization of relations without specifying Artsakh's status.
"A package settlement of the conflict as Armenia and Azerbaijan view it is, I think, impossible. And now the geopolitical disagreements have become deeper and sharper in the South Caucasus, which leaves no chance of such a settlement. The Russia-West rivalry over the region will only be growing," Mr Atanesyan.
Under the circumstances, agreeing to maintaining Artsakh's status quo is the only alternative to one of the parties admitting its own defeat. And even Russia and the West, which are in a state of cold war now, could reach an agreement of some sort on the issue, Mr Atanesyan said.