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Sabine Freizer: â€œThe signs of agreement on basic principles, which will be signed in Kazan, seem promisingâ€

23 June 2011 16:01 (UTC +04:00)

To some, the deal on the table may not seem like much. After all, it would still only mark the start of a process, not its conclusion. But if Medvedev can get them to put ink to paper, it will be a rare and significant step forward in this confrontation and a validation of the Russian leaderâ€™s persistence, APA reports that these thoughts were reflected in the article of Europe program director of the International Crisis Group Sabine Freizer called â€œA Moment for Peace in the South Caucasusâ€ published in the NewYork Timesâ€ newspaper.

Commenting on the Kazan meeting of the presidents, Freizer said that it will be the ninth meeting in the analogical format: â€œThe signs seem promising. In a strongly worded statement issued at the May G-8 summit meeting in Deauville, France, Presidents Obama, Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy of France, representing the mediators of the â€œMinsk Groupâ€ charged with settling the dispute, highlighted the Kazan meeting and demanded no further delay. Indeed, time is running out because this autumn campaigning will begin in the region and in the Minsk Group countries for 2012 and 2013 elections, thus complicating matters for some and driving the issue lower on the priority list for othersâ€.

Freizer said that a final settlement would allow some 600,000 internally displaced people to return to their homes and offer a sense of security for the approximately 150,000 people currently living in Nagorno-Karabakh: â€œIt would put an end to fears of a regional war. It is now up to President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to decide if war or peace is more threateningâ€.