Political scientist Melik-Shahnazaryan expects no real progress from meeting of Armenian and Azeri presidents
Although a meeting of Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, is scheduled to take place in Bern on December 19, nevertheless the Azerbaijani authorities are still not prepared for a settlement of the Karabakh conflict, political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan said in an interview with Panorama.am.
The press service of the Armenian president reported earlier that on December 18 Serzh Sargsyan will go on a working visit to Switzerland where he will meet with Ilham Aliyev in Bern on December 19, with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs.
“I don’t expect real progress from the meeting because I see that the negotiating process is deadlocked,” the political scientist noted.
According to Melik-Shahnazaryan, the increased activity on the border and subversive acts taken by Azerbaijani troops in recent days are directly connected with the upcoming meeting of Sargsyan and Aliyev, and a possible agreement to reduce tensions as a result of the presidents’ meeting can become an achievement of that meeting.
“The increased activity reported on the border in recent days should be linked to the expected meeting of the two presidents, or to be more exact, to the evasive policy of Ilham Aliyev. All the steps of the Azerbaijani leadership show that the Azerbaijani president is unwilling to continue the negotiating process or he is trying to drag out the talks, while waiting for changes in the region. In other words, one of the parties at the negotiations is unwilling to talk, and in this situation it is hard to expect anything except a regular meeting. In fact, there is a need for new mechanisms, a new position that will ease the border situation, make it controllable, and neutralize the threats. If this is done, it will be the only achievement that one can expect at the moment,” the political scientist said.
He does not believe that Ilham Aliyev readily agreed to have a meeting with Serzh Sargsyan, with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs. In his words, preparations for the meeting began in October of this year, and during that period the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan havemet several times.
To remind, the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents last met on October 27, 2014 in Paris.
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