Azeri daily wondering about fair Karabakh settlement after Beslan events

Ekho, Baku
7 Sep 04

The brutal terrorist act in North Ossetia compelled Russian President
Vladimir Putin to make an official televised address against the
background of the Russian flag.

It is interesting that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict was also
mentioned in that lengthy speech. Specifically, Putin said: “We will
not allow a repeat of the tragedies of Karabakh and the Dniester
region in North Ossetia” [as published, actually the Russian source
presents his statement as follows: “If we allow ourselves to be
blackmailed and if we give in to panic, we will submerge millions
of people into endless and bloody conflicts like those in Karabakh,
in the Dniester region”].

Naturally, such words might raise questions. Does it mean that Moscow
has started to understand the causes of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict
better and that the Kremlin might demonstrate greater activity now
to resolve it fairly?

We failed to get the Russian embassy’s official explanation of this
speech yesterday.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani political scientist Xaladdin Ibrahimli disagrees
with this kind of question.

“Russia cannot be compared to Azerbaijan or Moldova and it is not in
danger of losing its territorial integrity.”

Ibrahimli thinks that Putin mainly pointed to the impossibility of
alienating the North Caucasus from Russia. “With this statement,
he underlined that they will resort to anything in order to maintain
their territorial integrity. Even if the lives of innocent children
are in the hands of terrorists, they will not make compromises. This
is a signal to the Chechen movement – if you plan something even
more brutal, don’t expect any compromises in any case. I personally
understood it this way.”

[Passage omitted: Russian reports of Beslan casualties]