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No Date Set Yet For Karabakh Mediators’ Trip To Region


By Armen Zakarian
International mediators seeking a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have not yet set a date for their new round of shuttle diplomacy in the region, officials in Yerevan said on Thursday.

The French, Russian and U.S. co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were scheduled to visit Armenia, Azerbaijan and Karabakh last week in a bid to reinvigorate the stalled peace process. However, the trip was postponed last week over Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliev’s health problems.

“New visit dates have not yet been ascertained,” the spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Dziunik Aghajanian, told RFE/RL.

Aliev underwent medical treatment in Turkey earlier this month, but his current health condition is uncertain. The 80-year-old leader collapsed twice during a televised speech last month, fueling speculation about his impending departure from the political arena.

Aghajanian denied reports that the mediators will submit new peace proposals to the conflicting parties. “According to our information, there will be no new proposals as such,” she said.

Other Armenian sources said the troika will arrive in the region with a modified version of a framework peace accord based on agreements reached by Aliev and Armenian President Robert Kocharian during intensive talks in Paris and Florida in 2001. Armenian officials have repeatedly accused Baku of backtracking on those agreements -- a charge denied by the latter.

The Karabakh peace was effectively put on hold late last year due to the upcoming presidential elections in Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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