Nagorno-Karabakh

(Quelle: Eurasianet) Azerbaijan’s patience is wearing thin over the lack of movement toward Nagorno-Karabakh peace settlement, and officials in Baku are taking out their frustration on the OSCE’s trouble-shooter responsible for monitoring the cease-fire.

(Quelle: ISN Security Watch) In the latest in a series of diplomatic bombshells to hit the South Caucasus, Matthew Bryza, the new US co-chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group, announced last week that he had bad news for Azerbaijan. In an interview remarkable for its candor, Bryza told Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on 26 July that as part of its overall framework for ending the 12-year stalemate over Nagorno-Karabakh, the Minsk Group was urging a referendum for Karabakh’s population to determine the enclave’s future status.

(Quelle: IWPR) All sides remain pessimistic about the peace process in Nagorny Karabakh, despite a visit by the newly-appointed American negotiator to the region intended to breathe new life into negotiations. Matthew Bryza – who was appointed as the United States co-chair of the OSCE’s Minsk Group on Karabakh in June – has visited Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan during the past week. He said little in public following his meetings, but some saw his trip as a sign Washington, at least, is determined to move the process along despite recent setbacks.

(Quelle: ISN Security Watch) Growing discontent over Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations may fuel a call for war among Azerbaijanis. The sudden disclosure of details from a draft peace agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has sparked a surge in pro-war sentiments in Azerbaijan, analysts say, amid a growing conviction that negotiations with Armenia serve little purpose. The tone for Azerbaijan’s official reaction was set on 22 June when President Ilham Aliyev, addressing military school graduates, termed the so-called 'Prague process' of regular talks about the disputed enclave 'ineffective.'

(Quelle: Eurasianet) In an interview with RFE/RL on June 22, the US official tasked with mediating peace talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave indicated he and fellow diplomats had done as much as they could to foster a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Matthew Bryza, who serves together with French and Russian co-chairs to the OSCE Minsk Group, disclosed details about the framework agreement on the table and said it was time for the countries' leadership to summon the 'political will' necessary to achieve a resolution.

(Quelle: RFE / RL) Lifting the veil of confidentiality that has marked the Karabakh peace process since it began in 1992, the French, Russian and U.S. co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group tasked with mediating a solution to the conflict have over the past eight days gone public with a summary of the basic principles currently under discussion. While the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has confirmed that those principles are largely acceptable, its Armenian counterpart has highlighted several points that were either not clarified or not discussed the interview U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza gave on June 22 to RFE/RL's Armenian and Azerbaijani services.

(Quelle: RFE / RL) Matthew Bryza, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, recently gained a second job title: he has replaced Steven Mann as the U.S. co-chair of the Minsk Group tasked by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with moderating negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.Bryza spoke on June 22 with RFE/RL Armenian Service head Harry Tamrazian and RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service correspondent Kenan Aliyev about the prospects for a resolution of the Karabakh conflict, Russia's role in the South Caucasus, and America's strategic priorities in the region.

(Quelle: Reliefweb) International mediation over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh enclave is 'hopeless,' oil-rich Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said, vowing to retake it by 'peaceful means or by war,' in a speech to the military on Friday. Aliyev, who's country fought its neighbour and fellow former Soviet republic Armenia over control of the majority-Armenian enclave in Azerbaijani territory from 1988 to 1994, also said he would use oil revenues to beef up the military.

(Quelle: ISN Security Watch) No progress was reported in the latest round of talks between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev, meeting on the sidelines of the 5 June Black Sea Summit in Bucharest, conducted talks in what was deemed by observers a 'very good atmosphere,' but with no resolution of who ultimately should control the ethnic-Armenian exclave located inside Azerbaijan. The so-called 'frozen conflicts' of Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia are key issues for the South Caucasus - and for officials like Swedish diplomat Peter Semneby, the new EU Special Representative for the region. RFE/RL spoke to Semneby in Bucharest on 4 June.

(Quelle: ISN Security Watch) Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to have lost the last realistic chance for a near-term deal to end the bitter conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. A face-to-face meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents 4-5 June again failed to make any headway toward a settlement. Although international mediators insist that a breakthrough remains possible this year, observers see little prospect of that happening before national elections scheduled to take place in both South Caucasus states in 2007 and 2008.