CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 116

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
Following it further, Elena Pokalova from the College of International
Security Aff airs, focuses her study on the timing of confl ict resolutions.
According to Pokalova, the mediation attempts that take place right after
the escalation of hostilities, damage the real picture of future aggressions
by temporarily calming the tensions. In contrast, peace eff orts that are too
late from responding to the expanding violence, might end up with failure
due to the creation of a new prominent party. 4
Moreover, the mediation process of the NK confl ict is also widely
discussed among Armenian observers. For instance, Tatul Hakobyan, a
reporter and an analyst at the Civilitas Foundation, argues that both re-
gional and global players are demonstrating a neutral stance towards the
NK confl ict resolution by being content with frozen negotiations. 5 Fol-
lowing it further, in their works, Philip Gamaghelyan, from the School
for Confl ict Analysis and Resolution of the George Mason University
and Sergey Minasyan, a political scientist and the Deputy Director of the
Caucasus Institute, examine the possible solutions to the confl ict over Na-
gorno-Karabakh and present the existing stakeholders. As such, Gama-
ghelyan posits that Russia will gain long-term security and economic
benefi ts from the regional stabilization and the peaceful resolution of the
NK confl ict. However, according to Gamaghelyan, inasmuch as the stable
regional peace will result in decreased Russian political infl uence with-
in South Caucasus, in short-term Russia will mostly benefi t from the un-
stable situation in NK. 6 Similarly, Minasyan argues that Russia does not
have a vision concerning the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh by leav-
ing the resolution of the NK confl ict to an indefi nite future. 7 In his turn,
when referring to Russian position towards the NK issue, Gerard Libarid-
ian, a historian and the former adviser of Armenia’s fi rst president, Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, argues that Russia is mainly interested in preserving a sta-
ble situation in the border by being busy with other imminent issues. 8
Additionally, by presenting the Azerbaijani perspective, Tofi k Zulfuqa-
rov, the former minister of foreign aff airs of Azerbaijan (1998-1999), posits
that both Russia and the West refer to their control over any peacekeeping
operation in NK as a key factor leading towards the increase of their infl u-
4
5
6
7
8
Elena Pokalova, “Confl ict Resolution in Frozen Confl icts: Timing in Nagorno-Karabakh,”
Journal of Balkan & Near Eastern Studies vol. 17, issue No.1 (2015): 81.
Tatul Hakobyan, Karabakh Diary: Green and Black: Neither War nor Peace (Lebanon: An-
telias, 2010), 35.
Philip Gamaghelyan, “Intractability of the Nagorno-Karabakh Confl ict: A Myth or a Reali-
ty?” Peace Monitor, (2005): 3.
Sergey Minasyan, “The Nagorno-Karabakh confl ict in the context of South Caucasus region-
al security issues: An Armenian perspective,” Nationalities Papers, (2016), 6.
Gerard Libaridian, “The elusive ‘right formula’ at the ‘right time’,” inThe limits of leader-
ship. Elites and societies in the Nagorny Karabakh peace process (London: Conciliation Re-
sources, 2005), 37.
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