InternationalMediators fault Azerbaijan for threatening war over Karabakh
Azerbaijan continues anti-Armenian campaign at United Nations
Published: Friday February 27, 2009
Yuri Merzlyakov (l.), Matthew Bryza, and Bernard Fassier ( (file photo). Photolure
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Yerevan - In a rare instance of criticizing one party to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group issued a joint statement asserting that "despite two reports circulated at the request of the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations on December 24 and 29, 2008, there is no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict." Ambassadors Bernard Fassier of France, Yuri Merzlyakov of Russia, and Matthew Bryza of the United States, who issued the statement on February 19, underscored "the non-use of force as a core element of any just and lasting settlement of the conflict."
At a February 20 press conference in Yerevan with his Georgian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian, Armenia's foreign minister, reflected on the announcement of the co-chairs: "It does not often happen that the co-chairs clearly state that the activities of one of the sides in the conflict are generating difficulties and obstacles and hindering the peace process. Both in the Moscow Declaration (November 2, 2008) and in the two announcements of the OSCE foreign ministers in Helsinki (December 5, 2008) it has been said that there is no alternative to a peaceful settlement. When 56 OSCE member countries say one thing and Azerbaijan says another, Azerbaijan must explain to those countries why it has adopted such an unconstructive stance."
In what amounts to a rejection of Azerbaijan's efforts to involve the United Nations in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict, the mediators wrote: "Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serge Sargsian described their most recent meeting in Zürich on January 28, 2009 as useful and constructive, despite two Azerbaijani reports circulated in the United Nations General Assembly one month earlier. At the conclusion of their Zürich meeting, the presidents reiterated their commitment to the Minsk Group peace process, and asked the co-chairs to intensify their efforts to help the parties bridge their remaining differences with regard to the Basic Principles.
"In subsequent public statements, both presidents underscored their enduring commitment to the Minsk Group's mediation effort. Therefore, the Minsk Group's co-chairs will visit the region before the end of February to help the parties to accelerate their efforts to finalize the Basic Principles. The Minsk Group co-chairs will not allow the peace process to be subverted by legalistic or historical discussions, though they will remain sensitive to historical concerns expressed by the parties to the conflict, all of which must be addressed in due course. The co-chairs further believe the above-mentioned reports should have no bearing on negotiations within the Minsk Group in pursuit of a peaceful and political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to which both presidents committed themselves in their Moscow Declaration," the statement read.
On February 20 the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan disseminated the contents of two documents that Agshin Mehdiyev, Azerbaijan's representative to the United Nations had been sent to the United Nations Secretary General. The first document presents Azerbaijan's version of the Karabakh war. It clearly states in the document that Azerbaijan can "liberate by military means" the territories under the control of Armenian forces.
According to the Russian-language daily Zerkalo published in Baku, the second report says that respecting the territorial integrity of states is a founding norm of international law and the principle of self-determination cannot be viewed as a right for separation. And so, according to Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh can exercise self-determination only within the bounds of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.
United Nations resolutions
Since 2004, Azerbaijan has continually tried to place the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or any component of the conflict on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly and thereby win political points - as General Assembly resolutions are not compulsory.
On March 14, 2008 - while Armenia was in a state of emergency - Azerbaijan succeeded in its efforts and the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution "reaffirming the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, demanding withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all occupied territories there."
By a recorded vote of 39 in favor to 7 against (Angola, Armenia, France, India, Russian Federation, United States, Vanuatu), with 100 abstentions (among them all other EU states), "the Assembly also reaffirmed the inalienable right of the Azerbaijani population to return to their homes, and reaffirmed that no State should recognize as lawful the situation resulting from the occupation of Azerbaijan's territories, or render assistance in maintaining that situation."
Defining that resolution as "bogus," Vartan Oskanian, Armenia's foreign minister at the time, said, "I hope that Azerbaijan understood the message of the international community. Following the example of the co-chairs, the majority of the member-states refused the unilateral approach."
Azerbaijan is trying to discredit Armenia in international bodies with such resolutions. By taking the Karabakh issue or any component of that issue to the United Nations, the authorities in Baku believe that they can receive the ready support of at least the Islamic countries within that organization.
Earlier, on September 8, 2006, Azerbaijan scored a point when the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on ecological damage from fires in the Karabakh conflict zone. The wording of such resolutions is more important for Azerbaijan than their substance, because as a rule Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and the issue of the territories being occupied by Armenian forces are restated in those resolutions. And so, the resolution about the fires was titled, "The situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," a formulation that satisfies the claims of Azerbaijan.
