Mirkadyrov: Azerbaijan Should Seek Temporary Negotiating Framework

The Vienna meeting between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia did not become a failure or a breakthrough in Karabakh talks: the parties remain in their positions. This opinion was expressed in an interview with Turan by the political columnist Rauf Mirkadyrov.

According to him, Armenia on the eve of the meeting insisted on strengthening the ceasefire regime, the introduction of mechanisms for investigating the incidents, which is reflected in a joint statement after the meeting of the mediators.

At the same time, Yerevan failed to obtain guarantees about non use of force on the part of Azerbaijan.

Judging by the statements made by Sergey Lavrov on the parties' willingness to compromise and the need to move to phase settlement, the mediators took Azerbaijan's position on the need to start substantive negotiations.

"Next, Azerbaijan should establish timelines to achieve this gradual solution. That is, the negotiations are not open-ended and cannot last another 22 years," he said.

He said the phased settlement, the batched option, the "common state", the "Madrid principles" and their subspecies as the "Kazan formula” were considered over the past two decades.

It is unlikely that the mediators can come up with something new. Therefore, they should focus on the existing options, more appropriate of which are the Madrid principles, taking into account the elements of all the previous proposals of the Minsk Group. They reflect both the requirements of 4 UN Security Council resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh, providing for de-occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

If the negotiation process once again comes to a standstill, then Azerbaijan should bring the issue to the UN Security Council - the more that the latest UN Security Council resolutions contained a provision that the Security Council will soon return to its consideration.   -06B-