The contradictory political statements of the Armenian leadership on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement call into question the desire of Yerevan to somehow contribute to advancing in the conflict resolution. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his team prefer to indefinitely postpone important decisions on the Karabakh problem, guided by the logic and methods of the previous administration, writes Azer Tac.

The year of 2019 was supposed to be a breakthrough in resolving the Azerbaijan-Armenian crisis. This was facilitated by the Dushanbe agreements of September 2018, the bilateral meetings of the two countries’ foreign ministers in the winter of 2019 and the long-awaited meeting of the heads of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Vienna in March. All meetings were held in a positive atmosphere and the parties each time emphasized their commitment to a peaceful settlement of the problem.

However, the situation on the line of contact unexpectedly worsened by mid-April due to numerous cases of violation of the ceasefire. The Dushanbe and Vienna agreements seemed to break even.

The Moscow meeting between Elmar Mammadyarov and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan held on April 15 significantly reduced the tension degree, as a result of which the situation on the contact line stabilized for a while.

On the eve of the Washington meeting between Mammadyarov and Mnatsakanyan, information appeared about the death of Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers. As a result, the Washington meeting, like the previous Moscow meeting, increased the importance of mediators in the negotiations process, but in no way advanced the conflict settlement.

Baku expects from Pashinyan, who is positioning himself as an opponent of the Karabakh clan, a constructive policy that was absent under the previous Sargsyan’s government. However, Pashinyan continues to support the separatist regime, and Armenia does not hide the fact that it actually unilaterally places its units on the contact line.

In addition, Armenian PM constantly wants to shift responsibility for the conflict prolongation on Baku, continuing the useless discussion about who is the first to violate the armistice regime.

Pashinyan, like previous Armenian heads (Sargsyan and Kocharyan), stubbornly ignores the fact that both Azerbaijanis and Armenians lived in Nagorno-Karabakh for centuries. The Armenian PM prefers not to mention the existence of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan is trying to bring new technical elements to the negotiation agenda, nominally discusses the conditions for creating a favorable environment for continuing the negotiations, without doing anything for it.

The Armenian leader shows obvious duplicity; he confirms the commitments made by the Armenian side to respect the truce and refrain from any provocative actions, including sniper attacks, recognizes the need to bring together the peoples divided by the conflict. However, at the same time, he is actively working with the Armenian diaspora, emphasizing the need to use its full potential for international recognition of the occupation regime in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Such approach complicates the ongoing peace diplomacy and promises no light to the Armenian government. Unresolved conflict shortens life in power for the current authorities, which failed to bring anything revolutionary to life in Armenia after the revolt.

Read more:

• New approach to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

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• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Karabakh