ArmeniaNow  Some political circles and pundits in Armenia consider the week-long field assessment mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group co-chairs in Armenian-controlled territories around Nagorno-Karabakh to be a diplomatic defeat for the Armenian side.

But pro-government politicians mostly dismiss the possibility of any far-reaching implications of the tour, while insisting it will only help the international negotiators have a better idea of the situation on the ground.

Critics point out that Armenia should not have agreed to such a mission until a clear arrangement was made that a similar mission would be conducted also in Armenian districts currently controlled by Azerbaijan.

During one week the mission members visited the Aghdam, Fizuli, Ghubatli, Zangelan, Lachin and Kelbajar regions, with the main stated goal of the mission to get acquainted with the situation and meet with local residents.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs conducted a fact-finding mission around Karabakh in 2005, after which in interviews they said they planned to visit the Azerbaijan-controlled Shahumyan and Getashen districts from where the local Armenian population was forced during the 1988-1994 ethnic conflict. However, no such mission has taken place in Azerbaijan.

This time around the co-chairmen have also promised to visit the former Armenian-populated territories, but, again, there is no specific agreement on that account.

“We also intend to visit other districts that are affected by this conflict and visit those districts that are of interest to all parties to the conflict,” Minsk Group American cochairman Robert Bradtke said at a press briefing in Karabakh earlier this week.

Based on the previous experience, politicians are skeptical about such promises.

“Everything depends on Armenian diplomacy, but I doubt that, because the Armenian side lacks the courage and Karabakh lacks sufficient sovereignty to pursue such a demand,” says political analyst, historian Alexander Kananyan.

Independent political analyst Yervand Bozoyan considers the implementation of the mission to be a victory for the Azerbaijani side.

“If a field mission is carried out only in the areas adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh, it means that the Armenian side again suffers a diplomatic defeat, because it has failed to properly raise the issue of territories occupied by Azerbaijan,” says Bozoyan.

According to the analyst, because of Armenia’s diplomatic failure a common viewpoint has been formed among the international community and mediators that occupied territories are present only on the Armenian side.

However, according to Kananyan, who has lived in Kelbajar, or Karvachar, one of the Armenian-controlled districts around Karabakh, for about a decade now, on the other hand it is positive that the mission participants once again had the opportunity to see that “these areas have a population with strong bonds to their land, people who aren’t willing to commit suicide and will not give up anything at the expense of their security.”

Meanwhile, opposition Heritage Party parliamentary leader Stepan Safaryan believes that it was not up to the Republic of Armenia to give consent to the field mission to enter the territory of a sovereign state, (i.e. the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic).

“The Minsk Group co-chairs should have sent a formal letter to Nagorno-Karabakh authorities and received an official reply that the territory of Karabakh, as an open, democratic country, would be available for a field mission -- something that hasn’t been done,” says Safaryan, who also considers the implementation of the mission to be a defeat of Armenian diplomacy.

Unlike the Heritage lawmaker, ruling Republican Party member Karen Avagyan positively evaluates the visit by the co-chairs.

“They need to see Karabakh with their own eyes and talk to the people who live there. This is an important mission, and emotional criticism is inappropriate,” says the Republican lawmaker.

The Minsk Group co-chairs are expected to submit a report on their mission. The leaders in both Armenia and Azerbaijan told the visiting troika they expected the report to be “balanced”.