Maxim Shevchenko presents his view on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement
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"The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a threat to the whole region,” David Lidington, the UK Minister for Europe, stated yesterday in Baku after talks with the head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Elmar Mamedyarov. "The UK considers ways out of the situation and thinks about its contribution to the process. We cannot impose our views on the sides, but we can contribute to a settlement of the conflict through various initiatives and suggestions,” Trend cites the minister.
The last meeting of the President of Azerbaijan and the President of Armenia, which took place in Paris on the initiative of President Francois Hollande, wasn’t very inspiring for experts. But many of them admit that without dialogue there cannot be a settlement.
Maxim Shevchenko, a member of the Council for Inter-Ethnic relations under the Russian President, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the fact that the talks took place was a result in itself: "The sides cannot reach any certain results on borders or the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. But continuation of the dialogue after the shots which were heard in summer and autumn was a big victory, to my mind. I think it is a victory for Russian diplomacy, which managed to explain to the Azerbaijani side that Armenia’s accession to the economic union is not a threat to Azerbaijan, but an opportunity for a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh situation, which seems to be impossible to settle.”
According to Shevchenko, Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union could play an important role in the settlement: "It means that customs checkpoints (and Azerbaijan has realized it at once) will be built not on the border between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, but between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. How will the customs regime be provided in the region? It won’t be the Armenian border, but the Customs Union border. I think the procedures are complicated, but they will be solved constructively.”
Speaking about Russian-Azerbaijani relations, the expert stated that "these are relations between states which have their own complicated agendas, as they are complicated states, but the agendas are discussible, clear, and all problems can be solved. Azerbaijani business is improving its positions in Moscow and in Russia in general. Russia provides a complicated dialogue with Azerbaijan on the Caspian shelf and other issues. I think Azerbaijan will benefit from Armenia’s accession to the CU. It is an opportunity for shorter routes, including transit routes. At the moment it is strange to talk about it, as it is in the fog of an unpredictable future. But this is a great step forward. And Baku’s position is inspiring. It is a constructive, reasonable, clear position, despite the acuteness of the Karabakh problem for Azerbaijan, its population, and the authorities. Azerbaijan acts like a state which is ready for a complicated and serious dialogue.”
Maxim Shevchenko is sure that the conflict won’t be solved by the Europeans or the Americans: "They are interested in prolongation of the conflict, as they need leverages of influence on the South Caucasus.” Meanwhile, the expert believes that the Karabakh problem is difficult to resolve without the participation of the major regional states Iran and Turkey.
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