Nagorno-Karabakh discussed in Sochi

On Jan. 25, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev invited the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsian and Ilham Aliyev, to his residence in Krasnaya Polyana, next to the seaside resort of Sochi where the 2014 Olympic Games will take place.

The aim of the meeting was to continue the talks that were initiated under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group about the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia started in Feb. 1988 when Nagorno-Karabakh, mostly populated by Armenians, sought independence. In Sept. 1991 it was declared the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and it seceded from mainland Azerbaijan, with Stepanakert for its capital.

The conflict broke out between the Azeri army and the military troops of the new republic, supported by Yerevan and the Armenian Diaspora.

The conflict lasted three years until a negotiated truce in May 1994 was reached. Azerbaijan lost Nagorno-Karabakh and seven close districts that formed the new separatist region. The pacific settlement of the conflict has been conducted since 1992 by Russia, the U.S. and France, co-presidents of Minsk Group.

In March 2008, U.N.’s General Assembly voted a resolution for the immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and reasserted the right of Baku on these territories. But France, the U.S. and Russia vetoed the resolution.

Although Azerbaijan claims the integrity of its territory, Armenia is said to be defending the right of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was not involved in the negotiations.

This formal meeting is the fourth in the past two years. The last one took place in Kishinev on Oct. 9 during the CIS summit.

The three presidents met on Jan. 25 in Sochi, joined Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and assistant to the Russian president, Sergey Prykhodko. Armenia was represented by Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Presidential Administration Head Vigen Sarkisian. Joining them from Azerbaijan was Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

The week before, OSCE mediators met both Azeri and Armenian presidents in their capitals and handed over an updated version of the 2007 Madrid document.

Also, two days before, Sergey Narishkin, a representative of the Russian presidential administration, led a delegation to Baku to assess the situation.

In fact, during the meeting in Sochi, discussions were led about the future of negotiations, next steps and the way to settle the conflict between the two countries. It appeared to be a kind of mutual declaration.

Some days ago, Edward Nalbandian reported that both Armenian and Azeri presidents met nine times in 2009, and the most important task at hand is to keep up this momentum because it was the best way to settle the conflict. He also expressed his wish to see the Azeri position become more constructive in the next year.

Whatever the case may be in Nagorno-Karabakh, the army is estimated to count 25 to 30 thousand soldiers, and half of them come from the Armenian regular army, wrote Armenian newspaper Novo Vremya. They also have more than 200 T-72 tanks, 150 other kinds of tanks, big artillery and many weapons for air defense.

Meanwhile, the Azeri army quadrupled its defense spending in 2009 thanks to Turkish and Israeli support, wrote Golos Armenyi. It appears that, despite general and diplomatic declarations, Baku is opting for a warlike position.

After the meeting, no information was really published by the presidential press services. Sergey Lavrov said,　“Today, the main result was a common agreement that some parts of the document are not subject to the consent of the parties, but they will write these parts with their own words and ideas, and that will be reported in the final document.”