Forecast: Decisions on Karabakh will not be easy and quick

ArmInfo. It is quite difficult to determine today what is behind Yerevan's latest statements about the need to determine the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is clear that the range of possible statuses is very wide, and, in fact, apart from  independence, it is quite difficult to distinguish other statuses  among them .A similar opinion was expressed to ArmInfo by chief  researcher of the Institute of World Economy and International  Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, orientalist Alexey   Malashenko.

According to RA Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Marukyan, Armenia responded  to Baku's 5 points with 6 points. In particular, in a response letter  to the letter of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, the absence of  territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan was noted. Another  point concerns ensuring the security guarantees for the Armenians of  Artsakh, observing their rights and freedoms, as well as determining  its final status.

Yerevan also considers it important to fulfill all the obligations  enshrined in the statements of the leaders of Armenia, the Russian  Federation and Azerbaijan dated November 9, 2020, January 11 and  November 26, 2021. Yerevan is also ready to negotiate a peace  agreement, normalize and establish interstate relations based on the  UN Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights  and the Helsinki Final Act. The final provision noted Yerevan's  appeal to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to organize the relevant  negotiations.

"The possibility of choosing Yerevan between Baku's proposals in  order to continue negotiations in this direction is also not ruled  out. We see that the possibility of pro-Armenian decisions is seen  quite vaguely, while Prime Minister Pashinyan spoke quite openly  about lowering the bar of Armenian aspirations on the issue of the  status of NK. In any case, we see that the peace process is quite  complicated and is accompanied by internal discontent in Armenia and  largely incomprehensible disagreements around it," he stressed.  

Touching on the external background of the settlement, the expert  highlighted the haste of Baku, Ankara and Brussels against the  background of Moscow's involvement in a protracted Ukrainian war with  problems involving protracted solutions not only in Ukraine, but also  in other regions. And of course, Moscow's desire to maintain its own  influence in the same South Caucasus, which, in his opinion, is  becoming more and more difficult with time.  

"One way or another, analyzing this entire internal and external  spectrum of events and geopolitics, all these rather difficult  circumstances and the background around the settlement, we have to  state that decisions will not be easy and quick. There are plenty of  grounds for such a forecast - this is the difference between the  proposals of Baku and Yerevan and, of course, the most complicated  geopolitical background around the settlement, caused by Ukraine. All  this leads anywhere, but not to the speedy end of the problems  between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Malashenko summed up.