Azerbaijan’s respect for Vienna arrangements would have paved way to confidence-building – Russian analyst  

A progress in the long-running efforts to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict will be absolutely difficult to achieve unless there are confidence-building measures  between the sides, Andrey Areshev, an expert from the Central Asia and Caucasus Studies Center at the Institute of Oriental Studies, said Friday.

According to him, Azerbaijan's willingness to demonstrate good faith to the Vienna arrangements would have contributed to that effort, making way for a final outcome.

“There are many hypotheses and forecasts on the topic, but I have to be restrained to rely on official statements to say that the sides have not apparently reached sufficient outcomes.  The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has many years’ history, so the sides’ position, particularly that of Azerbaijan, is not acceptable,” he told Tert.am.

“I know there have been gunshots along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and there is a victim again. This has become traditional tactics not contributing to conflict settlement as it doesn’t strengthen confidence-building mechanisms between the sides,” Areshev said.


Asked why the recent statements by the OSCE Minsk Group do not make reference to the Vienna Agreements, the expert attributed that to diplomatic tactics. “That’s practice in diplomacy to avoid speaking about, and circumvent,  disputable topics, issues which they may have agreed upon but do not reach a final agreement,” he added.

Asked to comment on the Eurasian Economic Union, Areshev agreed that the bloc now has a considerably long way to pass to become a full-fledged integration format. “The Eurasian Economic Commission works effectively, but the decisions made do not affect the citizens’ everyday life or affect only partially,” he noted.