The good and bad news on Karabakh peace talks – expert opinion

Political analyst Alexander Markarov has pointed out to the advantages and disadvantages of the current peace talks over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The good news, the expert says, are the mediators' continuing efforts, as evidenced by their statements issued at times.
"And most importantly, they help convey to the governments the opinion that the status Nagorno-Karabakh may have following the August events [the Safarov extradition] is impossible while the country is part of Azerbaijan," Markarov told a news conference on Friday.
The other good news is the clear signal of the Nalbandyan-Mammyadarov meeting (held in Paris this October) that the peace process will continue on the foreign ministers' level, he said.
As for the bad news, the expert noted that the parties have no specific proposal to agree upon and thus ensure a turning point in the process.
With no concrete proposal on the negotiation table, the parties are far from signing a framework document or agreeing over the basic clauses, he said.
Markarov thinks the existing atmosphere, which prompts neither peace nor war, will continue into 2013, with Azerbaijan's weakening rhetoric being the only positive sign in such circumstance.
Commenting on Serzh Sargsyan's call for returning Karabakh to the negotiation table (a remark the president voiced at a Yerevan-hosted conference on Regional Security Dynamics in the South Caucasus), Markarov said the statement cannot be linked with the president's pre-election plans.
"I don't think different political role-players will have essentially conflicting positions on Karabakh in the pre-election period. But the difference is that each stakeholder has a chance to take part in the political decision-making, while other will make declarative statements obliging them to introduce their opinion to their electorate," he said.Markarov noted that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs' visits to the region demonstrate that Nagorno-Karabakh is not far away from the process. with its officials being periodically kept up to date of the negotiations and expressing their opinions.   Read more... (322 words)

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