Amanda Paul: Breakthrough in Karabakh settlement can be achieved in 2018

Baku. 21 December. REPORT.AZ / The long-awaited breakthrough in the process of peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be achieved in 2018. 

The Senior Policy Analyst at the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels, Amanda Paul told Report. 

“Regarding 2018, I do hope that this will be the year when the much awaited breakthrough happens in the peace-process”, Paul said. According to her, it is past time that Azerbaijani’s and Armenian’s move to a future beyond this bloody conflict.

The analyst believes that one can hardly say that important progress was made in 2017 towards solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Rather the status quo has prevailed. Intensified attempts by the main mediators Russia, France and the US, to restart Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process took place”, Paul said.

Intensified attempts by the main mediators Russia, France and the US, to restart Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process took place. Russia remains the most active OSCE Minsk Group co-chair country. Moscow as the most clout with both Baku and Yerevan. Despite the standoff in US-Russia relations linked to Ukraine, cooperation has continued to within the Minsk Group which is positive.

The analyst stressed that it is important that this year two presidents met for the first time in a long time in October, with the foreign ministers' meeting on the side-lines of the recent OSCE ministerial. "The entrenched militarization of the conflict zone is very worrying and dangerous", she said.

Paul believes, the fact that conflict is not seen as a priority by the international community means it does not receive sufficient attention.