After the unilateral recognition of the independence of Kosovo Azerbaijan became more cautious. It started to persist that the conflict of the NKR should be resolved only based on the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, however, objected this persistence. The French co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier during a NATO PA seminar “Rose Road” in Yerevan spoke to this issue. According to him, during the conflict settlement process, the Kosovo precedent is often mentioned because there are some elements which could be useful for the process of settlement of the Karabakh issue. “This is the reason why the mediators suggest solving all the issues and only after to pass to the issue of status, like in case of Kosovo,” says Fassier. “It is therefore necessary to establish a transitional status of Karabakh, until the world community recognizes its independence”, said the French co-chair. The French co-chair added that the Kosovo precedent has made Azerbaijan more cautious, careful and restrained, while the Armenians indicate the need to follow the Kosovo precedent in the solution of the Karabakh issue. According to him it will be easier to reach the status for the NKR if the societies of the two countries start to live more friendly to each other. By presenting the history and developments of the negotiation process he said that first it was attempted to find a solution, which would enable the NKR to be included in the authority of Azerbaijan. Later the co-chairs have tried to find a solution, which would imply that the NKR is not in the composition of Azerbaijan, which would be acceptable for Azerbaijan as well. “But during these years we weren’t able to resolve the NKR conflict,” said the French co-chair by mentioning that the mentioned two options were unacceptable for the two sides. In 2007 the so-called document Madrid Principles was created, which implied three main principles – territorial integrity, self-determination of nations, refusal of use of force. “Any solution to the Karabakh conflict should provide it with an interim status providing it with security guarantees, progressive return of territories, as well as return of population which used to live in Karabakh before the war, existence of a corridor between Armenia and Karabakh, presence of international forces which will contribute to conservation of peace”, says Bernard Fassier. He had also stated that the sooner the NKR becomes a participant in the NKR conflict resolution negotiation process the better for everyone. In his words by saying NKR participation we shouldn’t understand as the Republic of the Nagorno-Karabakh because it is not a recognized state by any country. “When people start to live in peace and will start to consider each other neighbors; when the former residents of the NKR return to their lands then indeed they can claim to participate in the negotiation process,” he said. He also added that the former president Robert Kocharyan wished to represent both the NKR and Armenia during negotiations.” “For some time the NKR was left behind from the negotiation process and so now both of the parties should come to an agreement to include the NKR in the negotiation process. And I hope this happens soon,” he said. There will come some time when the Karabakhis will have a deeper participation in the process. Also, yesterday he confirmed the information that the meeting of the foreign affairs minister Edward Nalbandyan with the Minsk Group co-chairs is due on March 16 in Paris.
