Monday, April 1 2019 13:19

ArmInfo.I think that in some areas Baku will find it more difficult to reach an agreement with Pashinyan than with Sargsyan. About this in an interview with "Echo  of the Caucasus" said political analyst Thomas de Waal commenting on  the meeting Aliev-Pashinyan.

Firstly, according to him, this is due to the fact that Pashinyan  constantly says that it is not he who decides, but Armenia plus  Karabakh, which means he is not in favor of such a radical position  as Sargsyan, who claimed that he could make a decision, - this is one  question. <And the fact that Pashinyan, of course, is a man from the  Republic of Armenia, and not Karabakh, - this also undoubtedly  creates problems. In Azerbaijan, it is assumed that Karabakh and  Armenia are one with regard to the Karabakh settlement, but,  undoubtedly, they also have different positions, "the British expert  noted.

Speaking about the meeting's agenda as a whole, de Waal stated that  Pashinyan insists on changing the format, he believes that the  process should be expanded to include Karabakh Armenians in it. "Baku  is fundamentally opposed to this. But it should be noted that the  Karabakh Armenians participated in the negotiations earlier, in the  early 1990s. The current format, where virtually everything is  decided by the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, has been around for  20 years since they began to meet (Robert Kocharyan with senior  Aliyev. I think that the format can be expanded, but undoubtedly,  then Azerbaijan will insist on the presence of Karabakh Azerbaijanis,  and this is a very long conversation. In principle, I think that such  a format is tete-a-tete not a solution to the conflict that there  must be much a more structured, comprehensive approach to conflict  than just a periodic meeting between the two leaders, "- said the  expert, adding that there is now virtually the resumption of the  process to resolve the conflict.

According to his invincible belief, almost 7-8 years is not a serious  negotiation process. "The last time the parties were close enough to  resolve it, it was in Kazan in 2011, and since then we have seen the  resumption of the conflict, a four-day war in 2016. I am skeptical  about the hope of a breakthrough, but I have a very positive attitude  towards Negotiations are resuming that leaders are already meeting.  There is also a positive fact that last year there were far fewer  losses on the Line of Contact. I think that we need a lot of patience  to develop the process, and here, of course, there are a lot of  questions: is Azerbaijan ready first of all wait until Armenia  develops a new position on negotiations, "de Waal asked.

Answering the question of whether there are any principles on the  table like the Madrid ones, de Waal expressed the conviction that  this issue would not be resolved without international mediators,  but, of course, those times are not, and it cannot be said that  Washington and Moscow cooperate so well. "But some kind of  international intervention is nevertheless inevitable, and I think  that serious discussions are taking place now in Europe, in Russia,  and in the USA. I think that there is no" B "plan. I think nothing  they did not come up with another to solve the most difficult issue  of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, and I think that the Madrid  Principles, although they are not popular, still try to solve this  issue, and I don't see another yet, "the political scientist  believes.