It's not in the hands of Co-chairs
The OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs leave for Baku today. This means that agreements have been made and Ilham Aliev and Serzh Sargsyan will meet soon.
Before making his trip to Yerevan, Russian Co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov had declared in Baku that the sides have asked to approach the issues from different angles.
Today French Co-chair Bernard Fassie was mainly answering the questions in broken Russian. He and the remaining co-chairs declared once again that the conflict can not be settled without the participation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Don't you think the work of the Co-chairs is senseless as long as Karabakh is still not a side in the conflict negotiations? In response to that Fassie said:
"We have said a long time ago that sooner or later all communities that have lived in Nagorno-Karabakh will be included in the negotiations process and the sooner the better. Of course, it would be nice if they were a direct participant in the process, but I can't say when that will happen. It is not in our hands."
Then who does it depend on?
"There was a time when Karabakh took part in the talks, but then the format changed and you know that it was not in the hands of the intermediaries. It depends on the sides." Yuri Merzlyakov tried to answer the question without getting emotional.
"I want to clarify that at that time, the talks were being held in a different format. Until 1997, this was not the format and the meetings were not at the high level. When the meetings started taking place at this level, we understood that that it is more effective than it was when Karabakh was stressing its position within the framework of the Minsk Group. The conflict is being solved at a different level today and Karabakh's participation is up to the consent of both presidents. The Co-chairs can't solve that issue."
As for Turkey's interest in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mr. Fassie tied that to Turkey's OSCE membership and remarked that Turkey is not a intermediary. Fassie noted that the Co-chairs are holding talks with the sides and not journalists or officials and each side expresses its views.
"We can register progress when the sides come to an agreement."
Matthew Bryza also talked about the return of refugees without going into detail on whether they were Armenian or Azeri refugees.
"We have met organizations representing refugees in Stepanakert. Regardless of the refugees' nationality, they have needs and rights and that issue must be observed," said Bryza.
At the end Bryza noted that there is no military solution to the conflict.
