YEREVAN—A Twitter post by the US Co-Chairman of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group asserting that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is “between Karabakh and Azerbaijan” has caused an uproar in Baku.
The US Co-Chair, James Warlick, wrote on Sunday, “I was corrected today – the conflict is Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Still, we want a peaceful settlement for all parties for NK.” Warlick is known to be an avid user of Twitter as a means of communicating with the public about the Karabakh conflict and has angered the Aliyev regime with his honestly in previous posts.
Warlick’s Twitter post angered officials in Baku who construed it as an acknowledgment of the legitimacy of the Karabakh Republic and its demands to be included in settlement negotiations. Armenia’s Armenpress news agency reported that Azeri state news outlets, such as VirtualAz.org, berated the US Co-Chair, calling him a “not so professional diplomat,” “unserious,” and even “foolish,” and accused Washington of making a mistake in choosing their representative.
However, Warlick has never responded to similar denunciations from Baku in the past.
The US Co-Chair will be meeting with the Armenian and Azeri foreign ministers at the international Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague on Monday for further talks regarding the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. The Co-Chair has also hinted at a possible meeting between the presidents of the two countries in the near future.
The neighbors to the east are ashamed to admit that they lost the war to Artsakh.
I’m starting to like this guy.. if he’s pissing Azerbaijan off, he must be doing something right…