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“The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs should have adopted targeted messages long before, as the recent statements appear to be a bit untimely,” political scientist Narek Minasyan from “Hayatsk” Analytic Center told a press conference on Wednesday.

“We saw how Azerbaijan resorted to provocations with respect to the Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ regional visit that also resulted in human losses. That is of grave concern, since the provocation came on the eve of the Co-Chairs’ visit to Baku. Those actions, undoubtedly, contained certain messages, including for the mediators,” Minasyan stressed. 

In the speaker’s words, the joint statement of the mediators, summing up the regional visit, failed to give proper assessment to the ceasefire violations occurred days earlier, rather contained formulations that effectively combined targeted messages with even-handedness, living much room for wide interpretations tailored to each of the conflict parties. 

Minasyan added Armenia could refer to the separate sentence in the statement that called on Azerbaijan to avoid from escalating the situation, while at the same time the next sentence conveyed the same message to Armenia, providing a ground for Azerbaijani side to interpret the statement as impartial and neutral.

“In spite of being a targeted message, the latest statement [of the Minsk Group] didn’t contain Azerbaijan and prevent border incidents. The time has come to take other measures apart from delivering targeted statements,” the expert noted, suggesting the recent development on the ground show one should not expect much from mediators, instead relying on own strength.