Friday, December 9 2016 15:44

ArmInfo. One should blame neither the OSCE nor the OSCE chairmanship for the lack of progress in the Karabakh peace process, German Foreign Minister, OSCE CiO Frank-Walter Steinmeier said when commenting on an Azeri journalist's  remark that the peace process has reached a deadlock.     

Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that he is not going to point at the  party that initiated aggression in April.  He stressed that if the  OSCE failed to take measures to reduce the escalation, the military  conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan would flare up with new  vigor. The Co-Chairs are working to resume the talks, but it is not  so easy to do that after the April escalation, he said.   

He added that he would like to see the conflicting parties to be more  open and to reach a compromise.  However, he said, the OSCE cannot  make them do it and that the parties' willingness is needed for it.     

To note, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair  countries - Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov,  Secretary of State of the United States John Kerry, and Foreign  Minister of France Jean-Marc Ayrault - issued a joint statement on  Dec 8. The statement reads, "We call on Baku and Yerevan to honor the  agreements reflected in the Joint Statements of the 16 May Summit in  Vienna and the 20 June Summit in St. Petersburg.  We welcome the  sides' progress in implementing the exchange of data on missing  persons under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red  Cross.  We urge the parties to remove all remaining obstacles to  expanding the mission of the Personal Representative of the OSCE  Chairperson-in-Office and to make progress on a proposal to establish  an OSCE investigative mechanism.  The proposals should be implemented  together with the immediate resumption of negotiations on a  settlement.  We would like to reiterate our call to the leaders of  Armenia and Azerbaijan to demonstrate flexibility and to return to  the negotiation table with the firm aim of moving toward a  sustainable peace on the basis of the current working proposals.   Unless progress can be made on negotiations, the prospects for  renewed violence will only increase, and the parties will bear full  responsibility."

To recall, the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in  Saint Petersburg on June 20 2016 at the behest of Vladimir Putin.   Reaching a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was the  subject of discussion at the meeting, which took place behind closed  doors.  Following the consultations, the presidents of Russia,  Armenia and Azerbaijan adopted a joint statement reaffirming their  commitment to normalizing the situation on the line of contact and  giving their approval to an increase in the number of OSCE observers  working in the conflict zone. The joint statement also expresses the  parties' commitment to putting in place the conditions required for  steady progress in negotiations on a political settlement to the  conflict.  The presidents made a point of their regular contacts on  Karabakh and agree to continue them in such format as addition to the  efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs who were invited to the  final stage of the meeting in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani  President Ilham Aliyev said that the investigative mechanisms at the  present stage of the settlement are irrelevant and the issue can be  discussed after "withdrawal of Armenian troops from the NKR". He also  stressed that the Office of the OSCE CiO Personal Representative can  be expanded by no more than 12-13 people.