Too much noise about nothing: Nothing released by mediators

 The Azerbaijani and Armenian mass media have kicked off the week with a big noise – “the mediators have released six principles for Karabakh peace.” It seems that the Armenian and Azerbaijani journalists have just been informed about those six principles.

Croatian city of Dubrovnik has hosted the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session, where hearings have been held on the “OSCE role in conflict resolution.” Since the only conflict which the OSCE, to be more precise the OSCE Minsk Group or the tripartite chairmanship, deals with is the conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh, the hearings have highlighted the issue of Karabakh. The discussion format, in such cases, is always clear; the key rapporteurs were the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Robert Bradtke, Igor Popov, Bernard Fassier and the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

Still not much information is available from the session. The shocked journalists have just covered those six principles which Robert Bradtke released. Those principles have been defined by the Azerbaijani media outlets in the following way:

1. Withdrawal of troops from regions adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh,
2. transitional status for Nagorno-Karabakh,
3. direct link between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,
4. final decision for NK legal status,
5. return of the refugees,
6. international insurance for peace in the region and implementation of peaceful activity.

It’s difficult to say what the source of their inspiration is. The co-chairs haven’t released anything in Dubrovnik. Their statements were not innovations. Those six principles were published yet on July 10, 2009, when the President of USA, Russia and France made L'Aquila Statement. In 2010 those principles were again released in Muskoka Statement.

For those who are not aware, we must note that the mentioned statements were posted on the official sites of all three Presidents the very day the principles were published and, depending on taste, one can read them in English, Russian or French by clicking on these references:

L'Aquila Statement: English, Russian, French, and Muskoka Statement: English, Russian, French.

Each of these references informs us that on November 27, 2007 the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group proposed the Madrid package of basic principles, with the 6 points formulated in the following way (according to the text of Muskoka Statement posted on the Kremlin official website):

1. Return of territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh
2. An interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh providing guarantees for security and self-governance
3. A corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh
4. Future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will
5. The right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence
6. International security guarantees that would include a peacekeeping operation.

We see that the Co-Chairs really have published nothing, they have just presented what had been published so far. At the same time, we cannot disregard the fact that the Azerbaijani media who have raised this noise, and whom the Armenian media cite, have essentially distorted the official formulations (especially in the bold parts).

We can therefore say that the Azerbaijani media, as original source of information, are not reliable at all. Regarding the discussion in Dubrovnik, only Russian Co-Chair Igor Popov has authored a valuable statement. Popov noted that the problem can only be settled in a diplomatic way, and the sides should show political will for this purpose.