YEREVAN.- Resumption of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in the coming years is unlikely, if not take into account regular exchange of fire in the line of contact, the head of the Black Sea-Caspian center of Russia’s Institute for Strategic Studies Eduard Popov told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
“Despite the modest and entirely expected outcome of the Kazan meeting, the conflicting parties have clearly marked willingness to participate in negotiations. A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit,” he said adding that the international community on the whole negatively perceives unleashing war in such an unstable region.
“Too many “big” interests will be affected in such a small territory. Therefore, big powers spare no efforts to hinder war in the near future. They consider possibility of settlement during the negotiation process is far from being exhausted,” the expert said.
Popov considers it is the only right position but much depends on diplomatic efforts of Yerevan and Baku. The sides should not allow hostilities to resume otherwise consequences would be unpredictable for the whole region and far beyond, he believes.
“The international community and Russia, as a leading Caucasian power, will occur in an extremely difficult situation if the war resumes. So everything will be done to prevent such a scenario,” he added.
Referring to the statement that today the maintenance of status quo is in the interests of both conflicting parties and the ongoing efforts to resolve the conflict or the rhetorical attacks on Baku’s belligerent style are of demonstrative nature, Eduard Popov said: “I agree with the above-mentioned position. Each of the parties, putting his assessment of the current situation believes its position is more advantageous: Armenia by controlling the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan by higher demographic and economic potential. Baku appeals to the fact that Azerbaijan’s official military budget exceeds Armenia’s entire budget. I think Baku really assesses the situation and uses this as an argument against diplomatic war against Yerevan. For this reason, warlike statements are issued periodically, the main target of which is the international community,” he emphasized
