I don’t believe the latest statement by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs is addressed to any one of the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is what Director of the Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan said in an interview with NEWS.am.

According to him, this was simply a reminder to all the parties to the conflict that the parties have no other document on the negotiating table.

“The Madrid Principles are on the table. They might be a little different in terms of the options, but the philosophy and principle of the negotiation process is as it is, and it’s not worth referring to the Madrid Principles as principles. A principle is something that all parties agree with, but the situation is different,” he explained.

He emphasized the fact that the work of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in this format has been frozen since 2016 and that the latest statement is the Co-Chairs attempt to restart the process.

“The negotiation process in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs is not one that can help resolve the Karabakh issue. The last attempt to take a real step on the path to resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was made in Kazan,” Iskandaryan said.

However, the expert also declared that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs are actually dealing with management of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and are trying to increase mutual trust, establish mechanisms for investigations into incidents, increase the number of monitoring visits and enlarge the group of Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Anjey Kasprzik.

Iskandaryan mentioned that it is impossible to resolve the conflict through these methods, but these methods help reduce tension on the line of contact.