International mediators are making another push to break the deadlock in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is charged with mediating peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, met in Moscow on May 2-3. They decided to dispatch the French Minsk Group co-chair Bernard Fassier to Yerevan and Baku to update Armenian and Azerbaijani officials on negotiation proposals. Fassier is expected to arrive in Baku on May 5, the Trend news agency reported. Hopes for a breakthrough in peace talks diminished in February, when a summit meeting between Armenian President Robert Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, failed to make headway on a settlement framework. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
The meeting of the Minsk Group co-chairs followed Aliyev's visit to Washington in late April. The Karabakh peace issue figured prominently in Aliyev's meeting with US President George W. Bush [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Those talks gave top Azerbaijani officials the impression that the United States, which is represented in the Minsk Group, would strengthen its backing for Azerbaijan's negotiating position. In a May 1 interview with Lider TV, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that "the US president and government are ready to take any measures necessary for the rapid settlement of the conflict."
Meanwhile, a recent report prepared by the Crisis Group called on the European Union to assume a more active role in the Karabakh peace process, independent of the Minsk Group's mediation efforts. France is the only state that has Minsk Group representation, as well as EU membership. Russia is the other Minsk Group co-chair.
The report, titled Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus: The EU Role, urged the EU to enhance its diplomatic influence by opening "fully staffed European Commission delegations in Baku and Yerevan." The EU should also formulate initiatives that create a more favorable negotiating environment, the report argued. "Sending military and civilian assessment missions to the region could give new impetus to the negotiation process," it said.
Using "the lure of greater integration into Europe," the EU can encourage negotiating flexibility from both Armenia and Azerbaijan, the report suggested. "Compared with other actors, the EU can offer added value as an
Editor's note:
Havilah Hoffman is an editorial assistant for EurasiaNet in New York.
