YEREVAN. – The Karabakh peace process is at an impasse, former FM and Prosperous Armenia Party MP Vartan Oskanian wrote in his Facebook account.  

“Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy [and Vice President of the European Commission], stated that progress in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict is crucial for Armenia’s political association and economic integration with the European Union. She called upon Armenia and Azerbaijan to step up the efforts toward reaching an agreement.    

Ashton’s statement preceded the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries’ Los Cabos statement, whose diplomatic formulations were very severe and substantially differed from the previous statements. 

Today it is apparent that the Karabakh peace process is at an impasse. I do not recall a time when the impasse was this much profound.   

[And] There are two reasons for this situation:

First, today there is no document at the [negotiating] table which all parties will accept as a basis for negotiations. Second, the unsettled problems have increased.       

[And] The mediator’s task today is to see to it that the parties ultimately accept one of the documents as a basis for negotiations.  

In my deep conviction, [US Secretary of State Hilary] Clinton left Armenia empty-handed, because Armenia could not have added anything new.  

I believe the Armenian side’s shortcoming in the negotiations was that it agreed to its concessions too soon and more than needed. Incidentally, the same negotiating mistake was made in the Armenian-Turkish process, too.   

It is clearly Azerbaijan which obstructs the negotiation process and jeopardizes the delicate peace,” Vartan Oskanian specifically wrote in his Facebook account.