Azerbaijani analyst: The essence of the Madrid principles lies in a  package-phased settlement

ArmInfo.The well-known statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Karabakh caused much ado about nothing in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani analyst Rauf Mirkadyrov expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.

"By and large, there was nothing new in Lavrov's statements except  one point. For the first time in many years, he recalled the  well-known four UN Security Council resolutions requiring the  liberation of the occupied territories, the opening of all  communications, ensuring the safety of civilians, and the return of  refugees to places of permanent residence, establishing economic and  diplomatic relations. However, he immediately made a reservation that  the only acceptable format for the implementation of the resolutions  is the institution of co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group, " he  stressed.

According to Mirkadyrov's estimates, by and large, the Madrid  principles are not an option for a phased settlement of the conflict,  as the above-mentioned UN Security Council resolutions and the  mandate of the Minsk Group require. In his opinion, in essence, the  Madrid principles imply a package-phased settlement, when all issues  are agreed in a package, but are implemented in stages.

Meanwhile, in the opinion of the Azerbaijani analyst, this  contradicts UN Security Council resolutions requiring at the first  stage eliminating the consequences of the armed phase of the conflict  without any connection with the determination of the final status of  Nagorno-Karabakh. The parties should have discussed the latter in  subsequent stages, more specifically at the Minsk Conference.

According to the analyst, Lavrov's mention of the well-known  resolutions with a stretch of imagination can be described as  pressure not even on Armenia, but personally on Prime Minister  Pashinyan, whom, according to Mirkadyrov, Moscow does not like. <On  the whole, the reaction turned out to be inadequate, both in Baku and  in Yerevan. At the same time, both in Baku and in Yerevan, they tried  to use Lavrov's statement and subsequent events to solve domestic  political problems,> he noted.

According to the analyst, the Armenian opposition behaved  consistently, but completely unreasonably, once again accusing  Pashinyan and his team of failure to negotiate. It is unfounded for  the simple reason that the Madrid principles were developed back in  2007 when Robert Kocharian was president. And all subsequent years,  Yerevan negotiated on the basis of these principles.

According to Mirkadyrov, the Azerbaijani opposition turned out to be  even more consistent, which did not react at all to the storm raised  by Lavrov in   tea cup. However, some representatives of the ruling  elite reacted, until recently, supervised by the clan of ex-head of  the presidential administration Ramiz Mehdiyev. According to them,  the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov did not react  harshly to the reaction of his Armenian counterpart to Lavrov's  statements. "Some even accused Mammadyarov of sabotaging the  offensive policy of Ilham Aliyev in the Karabakh direction and  playing up to Armenia on the principle" the king is good, the retinue  is bad>. All this is a showdown within the ruling elite, nothing  more. In a word, nothing new is happening. All is quiet in Baghdad.  Naturally, if we are talking about the process of resolving the  Karabakh conflict, "Mirkadyrov summed up.

Since 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group, represented by the co-chairs from  Russia, the USA and France, has been engaged in the settlement of the  Karabakh conflict. Currently, the settlement process is nominally  based on the Madrid Principles put forward by the OSCE Minsk Group in  2007 in Madrid and the Madrid Principles updated in 2009, which  contain a phased and package settlement plan and deployment of a  peacekeeping contingent in the conflict zone.