British expert: Against the background of Minsk Group `s call to  prepare societies for peace, the Davos meeting of the heads of  Armenia and Azerbaijan inspires hope

ArmInfo. Against the background of the Minsk Group's call for preparing the conflicting societies for peace, the Davos meeting of the heads of Armenia and Azerbaijan inspires hope and seems promising, Thomas de Waal, a British expert  on the Karabakh conflict, senior fellow with Carnegie Europe,  specializing in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region expressed  similar opinion to ArmInfo.

On January 23, the third informal meeting of Armenian Prime Minister  Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev took place on  the margins of the 49th World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  The meeting lasted an hour and a half.

According to the expert, against the background of the actual  suspension of the negotiation process on the Karabakh settlement in  recent years, recent meetings of the heads of Armenia and Azerbaijan  can be considered as the possibility of starting a new phase of the  negotiation process. According to his forecasts, such negotiations  can take place within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, as  evidenced by the call of the mediators to openly discuss ways to  achieve  peace between the conflicting parties.

Since 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group, represented by the co-chairs from  Russia, the United States and France, has been involved in resolving  the Karabakh conflict. At present, the settlement process is  proceeding on the basis of the principles put forward by the OSCE  Minsk Group Co-Chairs in 2007 in Madrid and the Madrid Principles  updated in 2009, among other things, providing for the deployment of  a peacekeeping force in the conflict zone.

According to de Waal's estimates, significant reduction in cases of  violation by the parties of the cease-fire regime, the change of  power in Armenia and most importantly, number of victims on the Line  of Contact of conflicting troops in Nagorno-Karabakh create quite  good prerequisites for the successful continuation of the negotiation  process.

Following the meeting with Ilham Aliyev, Nikol Pashinyan announced  live on Facebook that he had discussed with the interlocutor mainly  the history of the negotiation process. Also in the context of the  negotiation process, existing opportunities were discussed. According  to him, no specific details were discussed at the meeting.

"Some politicians are trying to convince the public that there is  some kind of secret conspiracy on the Karabakh problem. These are  absurd statements. There can not be any conspiracy. Such  conversations are the result of a wrong perception of the situation,"  Pashinyan said.  Earlier, Ilham Aliyev told RIA Novosti that despite  the lack of full-format talks, he had already had several "useful  conversations" with the Armenian leadership.