The separation of Azerbaijan's independent civil society from the domestic processes causes major threats that bring us back to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Laurence Broers, research associate at the Centre for Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus, School of Oriental and African Studies (London), has told ArmInfo.
Azerbaijan has very few independent public figures that can be perceived as legitimate partners for dialogue with Armenian colleagues. The wide spectrum of cooperation has been restricted to a state-run process.
Broers thinks that Azerbaijan's potential to find in its own society allies and partners for the karabakh conflict settlement remains illusive.
Over the past year the deteriorating relations between the state and the public in Azerbaijan have led to real and essential changes. For instance, the number of Karabakh negotiators has sharply declined, he says.
He points out that over the past 20 years the progressive democratic impulses in all societies involved the Karabakh conflict have weakened.
He thinks that the Karabakh conflict justifies the militarization of the state budgets, stability of elites and the lack of development. This looks ironical because the Karabakh movement initially sought changes and reforms.