“At the very beginning we understood that the Karabakh problem couldn’t be solved without the participation of Stepanakert”, -said the American chair of the working group of the Dortmund conference on regional conflicts, Harold Sonders. According to “MediaMax” Mr. Sonders said that the conflict resolution should be reached step by step, which was done when making the Camp-David agreement. According to him in the first phase the parties should work to strengthen their trust to each other, solve the problems connected with refugees and territories, and then in the second phase negotiate on defining the final status of Karabakh and signing agreement. He also said that it is not enough only to make an agreement diplomatically for reaching final peace: “The parties will also need in the efforts of people involved in the conflict”.
As for the Russian co-chairman, head of the Russian analysis center, Vitali Naumkin, he thinks it is very important that Karabakh be presented as a party of the conflict during the Dortmund conference, which according to him made the parties more courageous. According to Naumkin the demand of solving the political status of Karabakh contradicts the current political developments. “The international community doesn’t like the idea of defining the status of Karabakh. There is a real policy and there are real players in the international arena, and they all have their interests”, said he. By the way, the co-chairman noted that the Dortmund conference didn’t substitute the OSCE Minsk group.