Nagorno Karabakh: Armenian Bloggers on Moscow Declaration

Following Sunday’s meeting between Russian President Dimitry Medvedev and his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts, Serge Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, the upbeat tone of the mainstream international media in reporting a declaration on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict signed by the three has not been echoed by Armenian bloggers. Indeed, if anything, most appear to consider the declaration, which reiterates existing verbal agreements between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the 1994 ceasefire, to be simply for show.

Despite some initially cautious optimism regarding an agreement based on principles apparently discussed but not disclosed last year in Madrid, Unzipped simply described the declaration read out on Russian TV to be nothing more than empty words.

I am afraid I do not share excitement of number of news agencies which specifically mention that for the first time in 14-15 years, Armenian and Azeri presidents signed under the “Declaration”. So what? There were always meetings and discussions on various levels, including presidents, over the past decade but nothing came out of the negotiations, for real. The only reason that today Armenian and Azeri presidents signed under the “Declaration” is because this was a meeting initiated by Russia, and (taking into account current geopolitical situation in the region) Russia had to show that it achieved some kind of ‘breakthrough’ even if there is none.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.