Parties to the Conflict
Karabakh conflict contains two immediate parties to the conflict: the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijani Republic.
The official representatives of Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh have concluded agreements on numerous occasions, including the Bishkek Protocol and Cease-fire agreement, which was singed also by representatives Nagorno Karabakh. Besides, the final document of CSIS (now OSCE) Budapest Summit “Towards a Genuine Partnership in a New Era” of December, 1994 that specified Nagorno Karabakh as a party to the conflict.
(More on Budapest Agreement at: http://nkrusa.org/nk_conflict/documents.shtml#three ).
However, since 1998 Azerbaijan has been pursuing a policy of complete refusal of any contacts with the NKR. Rejecting a dialogue with the NKR indicates a lack of political will in Baku to do whatever possible for soonest solution of this problem. This is the only conflict in the post-Soviet area, which lacks direct contacts between the conflicting sides.
Moreover, now Baku is trying to present the Karabakh problem as a territorial dispute with Armenia, the main guarantor of the NKR security. Armenian authorities expressed a good will and readiness to promote negotiations for the final settlement. Nevertheless, the international mediators are positive that final solution to this conflict requires resumption of Karabakh’s direct participation in the negotiation process.
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