Forecast: The prospects for the effectiveness of the new format for  the peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict are rather vague

ArmInfo.The prospects for the effectiveness, and indeed the very suitability of the new format for the peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict, are rather vague.  Chairman of the Armenian Constructive Party, political scientist  Andrias Ghukasyan, expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.

"The main change in the negotiation process was the actual removal of  the Russian Federation from the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group.  It is clear that the work of the format of the Minsk Group co-chairs  in the conditions of Moscow's violation of the UN Charter and the  Helsinki Final Act became impossible.  This brought the European  Union to the fore, creating an opportunity for forming a new  negotiating format.  Another question is that the 24-year stage of  discussion of the fundamental principles of the settlement within the  framework of the OSCE Minsk Group has also ended. That is, the  principles on the basis of which the conclusion of a comprehensive  peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan was supposed to be  concluded. And this happened as a result of the decision taken in  Brussels to begin work on the preparation of a peace treaty," he  emphasized.

Meanwhile, according to the political scientist, from the latest  sensational speech of Prime Minister Pashinyan in parliament, it  becomes clear that these very fundamental principles of settlement by  the parties to the conflict are still not agreed upon. There is no  agreement around them, which makes it possible to forecast a very  difficult course of the expected negotiations. In Ghukasyan's  opinion, this is evidenced by the different interpretations by  Yerevan and Baku of the Brussels wording on the inclusion of all  necessary issues in the peace treaty that is being prepared for  signing. Thus, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry hastened to declare  that the Artsakh settlement is outside the framework of the agreement  being prepared.  And Prime Minister Pashinyan outlined the  determination of the status of Artsakh as a condition necessary for  the signing of a peace treaty.

All this, according to the political scientist, outlines the fact of  the lack of agreement between the parties to the conflict around the  fundamental principles of the settlement, which creates very tangible  difficulties for the prospect of developing and approving the clauses  of the peace, making the possibility of a new format becoming a  platform for advancing the settlement even more uncertain. At the  same time, the importance of the EU's role in resolving the current  geopolitical conditions and the international situation, in his  opinion, is indisputable.

"And finally, the last important circumstance is the  interconnectedness of the role of the EU in the settlement, the  course of the settlement with the cooperation of Armenia and  Azerbaijan with the EU.  The interconnection, that exists since the  adoption in 2011 by the European Parliament of the decision to  conclude an Association Agreement with Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the  same time, as one of the preconditions for concluding this agreement,  Brussels put forward the consent of Yerevan and Baku to the  implementation of the Madrid principles for the settlement of the  conflict around Artsakh. And as of today the European Commission  cannot ignore the logic of the decisions taken earlier by the  European Parliament. The latter means the absence of drastic changes  in the position of the EU on the settlement of the Artsakh conflict  that preceded the latest events," Ghukasyan summed up.