YEREVAN. – The tragic events, which occurred last April at the line of contact of the Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan armed forces, were aimed at decapitating the OSCE Minsk Group efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict.

Magdalena Grono, International Crisis Group Program Director for Europe & Central Asia, stated the aforesaid at a press conference on Wednesday.

In her words, attempts were made to keep the international community away from the Karabakh peace process. She noted that the lack of trust between the parties to the conflict leads to a situation in which it is not clear who should make the first step.

As per the International Crisis Group official, the hopes for a settlement to the Karabakh conflict are completely absent, at present. According to Grono, even though steps are taken to restore trust between the parties, there is no steady platform for discussions.

In her view, the Karabakh peace process needs to be stimulated. As per Magdalena Grono, there is optimism that a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs is planned for preparing a high-level talk. But against this backdrop, she recalled the previous calls for ensuring preconditions for the peace process.