Zulfugarov does not understand Mamedyarov's optimism

Baku / 30.01.18 / Turan: Ex-Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Tofig Zulfugarov, is pessimistic about the results of the Krakow meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia. In his opinion, the ruling elite of Armenia is increasingly toughening its position on the conflict. "Against this background, it is impossible to conduct real negotiations," Zulfguarov said in an interview with the program Cətin sual (Difficult issue) of the Turan agency.

The Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Igor Popov, said that at the Krakow meeting the parties agreed in principle to deploy an additional seven OSCE observers in the conflict zone as part of the monitoring mission of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office.

Where will the observers be located - on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, or on the contact line of the troops? What will be the mechanism for expanding surveillance and how effective will it be? Answering this question, Zulfugarov expressed the opinion that it was not a new mandate for the observation mission.

"The mandate is a document reflecting the powers and duties of observers. Simply, their number will be increased within the framework of the mandate adopted 20 years ago. Naturally, they will monitor not only the border, the contact line of troops, but also on the territory of the two countries," Zulfgurov said.

Observers are the source of information that is reported to the OSCE Chairman-in-Office. In Azerbaijan, this is regarded as a technical measure. "The main question is whether real negotiations will begin, or not? However, Armenia's position does not give grounds for optimism. Another issue that gives grounds for pessimism is that the international community does not exert any pressure on Armenia. Without this, progress in negotiations is impossible," Zulfugarov said.

Asked what can be the "creative proposals", the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, about which the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov stated after Krakow, Zulfugarov replied as follows: "It's difficult to say. I, too, are in favor of using beautiful, foreign words.

However, what is the creativity in this case, it is difficult to say. For, as I said already under the present conditions, real negotiations are impossible. All possible options have already been discussed for 25 years. Their new configuration is also impossible.

The minister, of course, looks optimistic. I would very much like that this optimism had real bases."

Recently, we have again started talking about a stage-by-stage settlement of the conflict. Does this mean that the Madrid Principles put forward in 2007 have lost force and a new phased plan has appeared?

Answering this, Zulfgurov stressed that the package option for which Armenia is advocating, in principle, is impossible.

"At one time, when the co-chairs proposed a package option to the parties, there was a wording that the envisaged steps would be executed at different times. So this is a step-by-step approach. In general, the co-chairmen proposed a "package option", they noted that they use such a name that Armenia could present this to its public in a favorable form," Zulfugarov said.

"Everyone understands that a phased option is the only possible one, since the issue will be solved step by step, if the will of the parties is to do so. Azerbaijan has such a will. We want an early settlement of the conflict so that our internally displaced people can return to their native places. However, Armenia does not want this, "Zulfugarov said. -03B06-