"IF YOU WANT PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR"

The presidents of Russia, the United States and France issued a joint statement on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict during the G8 summit in Canada, calling on the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to accelerate work on the basic principles of conflict settlement in order to begin to develop a draft peace agreement, reports RIA Novosti.

"Currently, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan should take one more step and complete work on the basic principles in order to be able to begin to develop a draft peace agreement," Dmitriy Medvedev, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy said in the statement, which they adopted as the leaders of the states co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group.

The presidents instructed ministers and mediators "to continue to provide active assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan in overcoming the existing differences in the process of preparing a joint meeting on the sidelines of the informal OSCE ministerial forum in Almaty".

The leaders of Russia, the USA and France reaffirmed their commitment to support the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in completing their agreement on the basic principles of the settlement.

The statement noted that the leaders of the states co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group "regard as an important step forward the recognition by both parties of the fact that a lasting settlement must be based on several principles, including the return of the occupied territories around Nagornyy Karabakh, interim status for Nagornyy Karabakh, which provides guarantees of security and self-government, and a corridor linking Armenia with Nagornyy Karabakh.

These principles include the determination of the future legal status of Nagornyy Karabakh "through a legally binding referendum; the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their homes; international guarantees of security, including a peacekeeping operation".

It is significant that the statement by Medvedev, Obama and Sarkozy was issued immediately following large-scale military exercises to mark the 92nd anniversary of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, which were held after President Ilham Aliyev returned from talks with the Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyan at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. In this respect, the document adopted by the presidents of Russia, the US and France can be seen as the mediators' response to the Azerbaijani president's appeal to accelerate the peace process.

It should be noted that the statement by the leaders of the co-chairing states of the OSCE Minsk Group as a whole is combined with the basic points of the updated Madrid principles, whose adoption is being delayed by Armenia. Back in January this year, at a meeting held on the initiative of Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan asked for two weeks to respond to them. However, he is still mulling them over.

Meanwhile, the Madrid principles, including the updated version, were developed by the mediators in cooperation with the parties to the conflict, that is, they take into account the positions of both Azerbaijan and Armenia. In fact, the negotiations have been held for years within the framework of the Prague process and these are the results of that process. And now that the settlement process can enter a critical stage in preparing a peace agreement, Armenia is once again trying to undermine all the mediators' efforts.

Armenia continues to ignore the resolutions of the UN and other international organizations. In such a situation, the intensity of the negotiations between the parties is not reflected in the quality of these negotiations, which poses new challenges to Azerbaijan: "either to continue the negotiations - we are ready to do this on condition that these negotiations are productive - or to take another path", President Ilham Aliyev said, while addressing soldiers during the manoeuvres.

This is not the first time that the Azerbaijani president has voiced this position. But we should bear in mind the fact that Ilham Aliyev's statement followed immediately after his meeting with the Armenian leader. "I say once again: we want to resolve the issue through negotiations. But if that is not possible, the Azerbaijani army and all our armed forces must be prepared to liberate our lands on the orders of the commander-in-chief," said Aliyev.

The president stressed that Azerbaijan's military expenditure is now more than 13 times greater than 7 years ago. The military expenditure for 2010 amounts to 2.15 billion dollars, which exceeds Armenia's entire state budget.

The analysis of the settlement process shows that Azerbaijan is not "brandishing its weapons", but follows the principle "if you want peace, prepare for war". Baku is being constructive and showing respect for the efforts of the international mediators, while agreeing to continue the peace process on the basis of the updated Madrid principles, despite the fact that they have certain reservations about them. But in demonstrating its commitment to the peace process, Azerbaijan has also stressed that the occupation of its land cannot continue indefinitely. Therefore, the military option for restoration of the country's territorial integrity remains open.

It is clear that this scenario does not suit the international community, which is interested in maintaining stability in the region. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group should, therefore, not confine themselves to the Canadian statement, which, in the absence of real pressure on Yerevan, can only add to the list of international documents ignored by Armenia.