Matthew Bryza: Armenia's recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to suspend Minsk process

Armenia's recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will suspend Minsk process, former US Assistant Secretary for the South Caucasus, ex- ambassador to Azerbaijan, Director of the International Centre for Defence Studies in Tallinn, Matthew Bryza told Trend.
According to him, this in its turn will result in military clashes between the sides. Bryza thinks that if Armenia really wanted to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh, this would be done long ago. Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan are interested in war. In Bryza's opinion, the current situation is beneficial only for Russia as a situation of neither war nor peace gives Russia an opportunity to manipulate the sides. According to him, there is nothing surprising in Nalbandyan's statement. 
Bryza noted that threat of force and incidents with sharpshooters are another form of diplomatic negotiations. 
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hikmet Hajiyev, while commenting on Armenian Foreign Minister Nalbandyan's statement, said that Armenia, by showing complete disregard for the position of the international community and by continuing to grossly violate the generally accepted norms and principles of international law, as well as the requirements of the UN Security Council resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, implements a policy of maintaining the status quo based on occupation and aggression.
To note, on October 7 Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated Armenia's readiness to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh's independence in case of resumption of military operations.  "It has been stated many times that if the peaceful negotiations are not continued, and it is a case of military operations, Armenia will take corresponding steps, which will also include the recognition of Nagorno- Karabakh's independence", Nalbandian said at the National Assembly, when answering to Heritage Party's MP Zaruhi Postanjyan's question.