According to Azerbaijani press, the American co-chairman of the Minsk group, Steven Mann announced the following yesterday: “Now we are trying to systemize everything. I can say that 2006 is the most appropriate year for the conflict solution. No development was registered in France, but we are losing time”. In response to the question as to what will happen if the negotiations in 2006 don’t lead to a positive outcome, he said: “A lot of positive work has been done during these two years. There is a chance now and the parties have to come to an agreement. It will be a real tragedy if the parties don’t use this chance”. The American co-chairman denied the rumors in the Azerbaijani press that Robert Kocharyan and the OSCE co-chairman Youri Merzliakov left the hall of negotiations one day later and went to another room, after which the president of Armenia returned back and unexpectedly ceased the negotiations. “I was there and didn’t see anything like that. This is all rumor and I don’t know where they come from”, said Mr. Mann. According to him after the negotiations in Rambouillet Ilham Aliev called Condoleeza Rice and informed about the results. “Aliev and Rice talked about the details. Condoleeza Rice emphasized the importance of the agreement and that the US will support the negotiation process”, said Mr. Mann. It is also worth mentioning that after the negotiations in Rambouillet Russia noted that they are ready to support the negotiation process too. Even more, on February 19 the foreign affairs ministry of Russia made an announcement regarding Karabakh, according to which Russia is ready to give a guarantee for the conflict regulation. Besides that recently, there were many discussions in the Russian press that Russia should increase its role in the negotiation process. And these days the Russian Mass Media is full of analyses, which will confirm this view. Different analyzers try to prove that the conflict can’t be regulated without a serious participation in the process on the part of Russia. Among these analyzers are representative of the Russian “National Strategy Council” Iosif Diskin. According to him the announcement of the Russian foreign affairs ministry is very prudent. “We should note that they don’t say anything about the possibility to take part in the negotiation process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but they only guarantee the fulfillment of the agreement reached between the parties during the negotiation process”, says Diskin in his interview given to “Regnum”.
By hinting the Baku-Jeyhan gas pipeline Diskin said that it is high time that the US has entered Azerbaijan and protects their rights there. According to him, due to the rapid change in the relations between Iran and America and since there are more Azerbaijani in Iran than in Azerbaijan, the U.S. may use the power of the Azerbaijani Diaspora and explode Azerbaijan from inside. According to Diskin Azerbaijan is in a very bad situation now, because on the one hand they understand that they can never get Karabagh back, on the other hand they can’t announce this in Azerbaijan because there are a lot of extremists in their country and they may take people out to streets and blame the authorities of capitulation and other things. “In this case Azerbaijan is looking for a country, which can offer them a program for peaceful regulation of the conflict and will serve as guarantee for peace, as well as in their country. And here Azerbaijan understands that this country can be Russia; in this case neither their internal powers, nor Iran (which is interested in keeping good relations with Russia) and nor America (which is interested in keeping stability in Azerbaijan) will cause hysteria”, said Diskin trying to prove the importance for Russia to participate in the process of negotiations. According to him the plan of the conflict regulation has already been worked out, and it is the same thing that is suggested by different parties. This plan goes as follows: Karabakh returns the “Azerbaijani occupied territories” back and instead of this gets a status which is to be prolonged for 15 years, thus keeping autonomy and self-governance in this period. “Here the problem is that the realization of this plan will be accepted as capitulation both in Azerbaijan and in Armenia. And in this case only Russia can guarantee peace and sustainability in both of these countries. Besides that no party, except of Russia, can guarantee that Iran will not take part in the development of an inter-political conflict in Azerbaijan”, says representative of the Russian “National Strategy Council”. According to him the recent announcement of the Russian foreign affairs ministry can be accepted as the beginning of the “Kosovo model” universality realization, which was announced by Russian president Putin recently.