The steps taken by Russia prove that Moscow is trying to bring closer the positions of the Karabakh conflict parties through mutual compromises, former U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza, told Voice of America.
According to him, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov has put a new offer on the table, trying to review the framework agreement, which was drawn out with the help of the Minsk Group in Madrid back in 2007.
The Madrid principles have mainly remained unchanged during the last years, no radical changes having been made in the framework agreement, since it was the only logical way to solve the issue, the former diplomat said.
In Bryza’s words, the heads of Armenia and Azerbaijan had reached a principled agreement on the framework agreement and a final agreement was expected to be reached, this being followed by long-lasting talks aimed at drawing out the agreement.
However, according to him, the process didn’t advance, since neither President Aliyev nor President Sargsyan had sufficient confidence towards each other in order to inform the citizens about complex decisions.
He also noted that the crisis which took place in Yerevan in the recent weeks was first of all conditioned by the disagreement of the authorities round the possible compromises in Karabakh conflict.
The issue concerns new compromises, which will bring the parties closer, Bryza said. In his words, certain people in Armenia’s political system do not wish to make compromises, this resulting in the aforementioned crisis.