“I think that eventually the Azeri lands under the control of Armenia will be returned to Azerbaijan phase by phase, and the Azeri refugees will return to those lands,” said American co-chairman Matthew Bryza in his recent interview given to the Russian Echo Moskvy radio station when commenting on the prospective of Karabakh conflict settlement and the meeting of the Armenian and Azeri presidents in Prague on May 7. However Bryza managed to go too far yesterday and concerning the conflict of Karabakh said the following: “At this time I can’t say what will happen to Karabakh and now the parties are negotiating this issue to decide how this issue will be handled.” The journalist of the radio station asked whether it meant that Nagorno Karabakh would have another structure, in answer to which Bryza said, “New, I may say a new political structure.” Bryza says that he hopes there will be a significant change in the negotiations in a month, after the Armenian and Azeri presidents’ meeting in Saint Petersburg. The Russian co-chair Youri Merzlyakov has given interview to the Echo Moskvy radio station too and he said that he was expecting a significant change in the process too. “We, the co-chairmen, are expecting improvements concerning the issues, which are not agreed yet: these are 4 issues or 4 main principles, most of which are mutually understood by the parties,” said Merzlyakov.
The Armenian authorities were concerned of Bryza’s announcements in particular. The spokesperson of the Armenian foreign affairs ministry has refuted Bryza’s announcements. Furthermore, RPA representatives Armen Ashotyan and Edward Sharmazanov not only refuted Bryza’s announcement but dared to “send him to the place where he should be.” However, by a strange coincidence the president’s office did not make any announcements yesterday. It is worth mentioning that after the presidents’ meeting in Prague on May 7 the president’s office made a statement reading that the meeting gave an opportunity to approximate the positions of the parties concerning certain provisions.