Scarce progress on Platform implementation

January 26: Istanbul was hosting a discussion on Stability and Partnership Platform in the Caucasus. The meeting of representatives of Foreign Ministries of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Russia and Armenia had no effect.

According to Regnum IA "as each of the five countries has its own outlook on the sources and result of the conflicts in the region no final resolution or a joint declaration was adopted". But the Platform idea is not given up yet. Another meeting is expected. Its place and time will be defined on the level of working groups created by each state.

What was the obstacle to the constructive result of the dialogue? It is not totally clear yet. However the next day, on January 27, the press got hold of some details of Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Araz Azimov's speech.

"Official Baku, - Day.az is quoting, - considers the implementation of the Platform that would open a gate to cooperation with Armenia impossible without settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict". The diplomat also noted that the interest of the 5 participating countries in establishment of safety in the region "is important for implementation and development of this platform" and called all former and future discussions "useful".

One way or another implementation of the idea aimed at the resolution of territorial controversies in the Caucasus has knocked against one of those.

It will be remembered that the proposal to create an organization called "Stability and Partnership Platform in the Caucasus" was initiated by Turkey's Prime Minister Rejep Erdogan during his visit to Moscow on August 13 2008. He justified his idea by several conflicts going on in the Caucasus such as the Karabakh (since 1987) and Armenian-Turkish (with over 90 years' history) conflicts.

The August events served as an accelerator to the Platform creation. Erdogan's proposal was provisionally approved by all countries supposed to become its members: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Armenia.

In late December it became known that the organization might acquire an official status after execution of a special document. It was stated by Tajip Rejep Erdogan in his interview with Regnum IA: "There was a meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Platform member states. The format of the future treaty was discussed. Presently the working group is working on it to have it adopted without delay".

It is not impossible that the document draft was meant to be if not signed at least looked through at the Istanbul meeting. And on the whole the expectations were quite optimistic.

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