Yerevan /Mediamax/. Chatham House Associate Fellow for Russia and Eurasia Programme, Caucasus Survey Editor-in-Chief Laurence Broers has said today that “Baku wants to maintain the undecided status of Nagorno-Karabakh for an indefinite term”.

The expert has made that statement during the two-day international conference “Prospects for Peace in Nagorno-Karabakh: International and Domestic Perspectives”.

“Azerbaijan perceives itself as a state whose claim is supported by the international legal norms, including four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in 1993, which directly mention territorial integrity and the inadmissibility of change of borders through violence. Essentially, the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is presented in Baku from a point of view where the international legal stance and the claims of Azerbaijani leadership coincide,” said Laurence Broers.

On the other hand, the British expert notes that the West has never been as clear in regard to Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity as in case of Moldova, Georgia, and especially Ukraine.

“The Azerbaijanis have been trying to compare the conflict in Eastern Ukraine to Nagorno-Karabakh, and they believe that double standards and liberal hypocrisy are unacceptable in this matter,” he said.

According to Laurence Broers, that has a consequence.

“First, the notion that there is a common legal approach to internal conflicts, which Azerbaijan tried to turn to its favor, has been corrupted. This reinforced that idea that convincing the party is more important than the principle, and Azerbaijan has spent millions of dollars on “caviar diplomacy” to strengthen the position that a military resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will not have large response and consequences from the international community.”

The expert has stated that Baku fears that if the OSCE Minsk Group continues to operate until the logical end of its efforts, it will lead to verified separation of Karabakh.

“Therefore, step by step Azerbaijan tries to alienate the common opinions and delay the final decision on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijanis want that process to continue indefinitely. However, I think that Armenian control over Karabakh will also grow in the meantime,” he said.

According to Laurence Broers, the people of Azerbaijan have been told for years that Azerbaijan is stronger than Armenia by resources, capacities and potential, which will allow them to terrorize Armenia and force it to make concessions.

“They say that Azerbaijan lost the real war with Armenia, but it will win the cold war. Since from the 2010s, nevertheless, the chain of these stereotypes has broken. A number of events caused that: the Arab Spring, the rise of ISIS, the civil war in Syria, and some others,” stated the expert.