Stepanakert should return to the negotiating table, former US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans said in Washington, during a discussion on the Karabakh conflict, the Armenian service of Voice of America reports.
Evans noted that in its relations with Yerevan Moscow behaves with due regard for its own interests and this should not raise eyebrows. As regards Washington's stand on the Karabakh conflict settlement, Evans thinks that the US is trying to contribute to improvement of the people-to-people contacts first of all.
The diplomat said that the nations co-existed in Karabakh in the Soviet times, but over the past 20 years the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan have never lived together. He thinks that after the April war the demand for Karabakh's involvement in the peace process has grown. In 1994, Karabakh was one of the parties to sign the ceasefire agreement and Karabakh has always been expected to join the negotiations at some stage. He stressed the approach that suggests involving Karabakh in the talks has become topical after the April war.
For his part, Sergey Markedonov, Russian political expert, said that Armenia is an important ally of Russia, however, Moscow is not going to lose Azerbaijan. There are no forces to make Russia stop selling military hardware to Azerbaijan. He stressed that the developed war shows discrimination against Moscow, preventing Russia from making influence on the neighbors. The West admits that India, Pakistan and Turkey are trying to influence the neighboring countries, but the West does not admit the same in the case of Russia, he said.