With the disintegration of the U.S.S.R., many identity and land oriented conflicts emerged. One of these conflicts, which still simmers today is that between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Now, it seems there is some genuine movement toward a resolution under the mediation efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group. As Liz Fuller reports:
The visit by the French, Russian, and US co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group to Yerevan and Baku may have brought a formal settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict one step closer.
Meeting with the Minsk Group co-chairs on July 8 and 10, respectively, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to meet in Moscow on 17 July. That meeting will be the sixth between Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in just over a year.
Forward movement indeed. But, is a party missing:
Speaking today at a conference in Stepanakert, de facto Nagorno-Karabakh leader Bako Sahakian said no peace agreement is possible without Karabakh’s participation.
“Karabakh, which is the main party to the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, has been left out of the negotiations, and we must achieve the return to this important principle. It is impossible to realize any solution without the consent of the people of the Nagorno-Karabakh republic,” Sahakian said.
The conditions to create a spoiler, or a still-birth agreement seem to be in the making if all relevant parties are not involved and included.
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