The Michigan Daily, MI
25 Oct. 2004

Experts discuss prospects for peace in former Soviet republics

Tofik Zulfugarov, Azerbaijani ambassador to the United States, speaks
before an assembly of diplomats during a conference on foreign policy
challenges in the southern Caucusus, held at the University’s Alumni
Center on Saturday. (PETER SCHOTTENFELS/Daily)

By Leah Gutman, Daily Staff Reporter

Too often, myths perpetuated about foreign conflict mediation have
actually delayed swift resolutions, Wesleyan University government
professor Arman Grigorian said.

More than 35 professors and diplomats of the United States and other
nations attended the four-day, University-hosted International Armenian
Conference over the weekend. They examined the political history of the
Southern Caucasus, as well as the current state of strife there, to
discuss new approaches for peace in the area.

The Southern Caucasus — a part of the former Soviet Union north of the
Middle East — consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

On the conference’s third day, during a panel on conflict resolution in
the Southern Caucasus, Grigorian warned against resolutions to dilemmas
that require many intermediary parties.

An issue of much contention, Grigorian pointed toward American
involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Armenia as an example
of third-party mediation that has been largely unsuccessful.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988 in a clash over Soviet
territory between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. By the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1991, full-blown war had erupted in the region. Bloodshed
eventually ceased in 1994, yet analysts say its consequences are
strongly felt between the two parties today and political settlements
have yet to be reached.

Some, like Grigorian, feel that U.S. mediation efforts in conflicts in
the Caucasus have only made matters worse. He said the United States
and Russia, two countries with different interests, have competed in
the Caucasus instead of trying to help the region.

“It’s easy to see me as favoring Russian mediation — perhaps because
I’m Armenian and Armenians tend to be pro-Russia — but I don’t care
which party (is given the upper hand) as long as they’re seriously
interested in finding a solution,” Grigorian said.

LSA senior Steve Jebinak, who attended the conference on Saturday and
is researching the region, expressed his interest in Armenian foreign
and state relations. “I’m investigating how regions that have broken
away (from their original country) do function as states, though
they’re not recognized diplomatically.” Armenia declared its
independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991.

Tom de Waal, Caucasus editor and project coordinator of the Institute
for War and Peace Reporting, closed the panel by suggesting that the
weight of discontent among the people of the Southern Caucasus lies not
so much in the conflict itself, but in the way the conflict is
perceived.

“What’s in the mind is often the biggest obstacle to the resolution of
these conflicts,” Waal said. “The differences are not that great; it’s
the perceptions of conflicts which extenuates those differences.”

Waal said he hopes that in the coming years, Armenians, Azerbaijanis
and Georgians will come to regard their shared past as a source of
unity.