By Ivan Gharibyan

On the threshold of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ visit to the region scheduled for early November, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby made a number of provocative statements, which may only exacerbate the Armenian-Azerbaijani disagreements.

Long ago Armenia outlined the greatest extent of concessions it is ready for, and the only thing for the international community to do was to focus its attention on Azerbaijan’s non-constructive position. All of a sudden, a high-ranking European official made statements that can only cause official Yerevan to revert to the initial hard lines at the next stage of the negotiations process.

It is noteworthy that in his sensational interview with the Russian Vremya Novostey (Time of News) newspaper, Mr. Semneby, roughly speaking, “beat” even Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. A couple of months ago the latter used such a vague phrase as “Nagorno-Karabakh will have some status,” whereas the high-ranking European official stated that the most complicated issues, that is the issues related to Nagorno-Karabakh’s status, are being postponed for an indefinite period. Thus, Mr. Semneby thinks that the return of the regions forming a security zone round Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan is a very easy issue, whereas that of Nagorno-Karabakh status is a complicated one.

This position is beneath criticism and runs counter to the previous statements made by all the international mediators, who have repeatedly stated the inevitability of mutual, and painful, concessions. Mr. Semneby, however, has presented a picture that does not contain a single hint at any concessions by Azerbaijan.

It is common knowledge that official Yerevan encounters serious problems with presenting its approaches to the Nagorno-Karabakh population. Although it is Armenia’s ex-president Robert Kocharyan who is fully responsible for the Nagorno-Karabakh being ousted from the negotiation process, repeatedly reminding the Armenian side of this fact does not resolve one of the major problems. Although Armenia and Azerbaijan are the only negotiators, none of their decisions may be implemented if official Yerevan fails to convince Stepanakert of the necessity for observing the agreements.

The European official should have understood the simple truth. Mr. Semneby’s sensational interview, however, evoked most unfavorable responses by the Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh authorities. The most important fact is that the EU Representative contradicts himself by, on the one hand, calling for not burdening the Armenians authorities to get them to hold a constructive position and, on the other hand, creating difficulties for them. What is the cause of all that? A complete lack of understanding of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and of the limit of the conflicting parties’ potential for concessions, or the European Union’s sudden wish to torpedo the negotiations? Or, may be it is just an amateurish approach?