AZERBAIJAN FAILS AT UN

Azg/arm
26 Nov 04

This Is No Victory for Armenia and Karabakh

During discussions of the issue of “condition on Azerbaijanâ~@~Ys
conquered territories” at the UN General Assembly, foreign minister of
Azerbaijan singled out the situation in Lachin region, which as he put,
“was inhabited by the Azeris before the war and 13 thousand Armenians
were settled there recently”. “750 thousand Azeris were forced out from
the conquered territories of Azerbaijan”, Mamediarov said. He noted
that the Armenians are renaming Azeri towns and that the Armenian
armed forces had a hand in creation of two new settlements in Qelbajar.

Suzan Moor, US representative at the UN, opposed on behalf of the
OSCE Minsk group co-chairmanship to Bakuâ~@~Ys initiative thus proving
that the Minsk group does not approve of transmitting Nagorno Karabakh
issue to the UN.

It is still uncertain when the formula will be put to the vote. Minsk
group co-chairs were supposed to meet Mamediarov on November 24. Last
time Karabakh issue was discussed at the UN was in 1993 during torrid
battles in Karabakh. UN Security Council adopted 4 formulae.

Permanent representative of Armenia to UN, Armen Martirosian, addressed
the Assembly reminding that it was Azerbaijan who began pogroms of
Armenians in Baku, Sumgait and Kirovabad in 1988-1990 and made 400
thousand Armenians flee their homes particularly in the regions of
Shahumian, Getashen and Northern Martakert.

Martirosian stated in his speech that Nagorno Karabakh had never
been in the structure of independent Azerbaijan, Armenian population
of Karabakh won its right of freedom in a legitimate way through a
referendum in 1991. He also noted that first and foremost issue is
to reconcile Karabakh and Azerbaijan but Baku has been turning down
Minsk groups suggestions since 1998.

Since Aliyev seniorâ~@~Ys presidency Azerbaijan has been constantly
attempting, sometimes successfully, to make diverse institutions
adopt formulae on Karabakh that are not desired for Armenia and
Karabakh. So, the European Parliament adopted a formula on Karabakh
issue in January of 2004, the PACE Commission on Political Issues
and NATOâ~@~Ys Parliamentary Assembly adopted formulae too.

The Karabakh war of 1992-1994 is not included in all those formulae
thus distorting the essence of the issue. Armenian diplomacy failed
to make the world community understand that the Karabakh issue emerged
in Azerbaijan as a result of Karabakh peopleâ~@~Ys legal wish to gain
independence, it also keeps silent of the fact that Azerbaijanâ~@~Ys
Supreme Council took a decision on November 26, 1991, to clear Nagorno
Karabakh off Armenian population and secure Azeris.

Azerbaijan succeeded in convincing the world community that it is the
victim of aggression, has lost 20 percent of its territory and has
more than 1 million refugees. Most of the territories controlled by
Armenian forces were once presented to Azerbaijan by Moscow. In 1923,
when Stalin created “Red Kurdistan” (breaking overland connection
between Armenia and Karabakh) newly formed unit included Armenian
Qashunik (Kubatlu), Qarvachar (Qelbajar), Qashatakh (Lachin) regions
that were populated by Turkish-speaking Kurds.

It is very important that the UN General Assembly voted
Azerbaijanâ~@~Ys initiative down. Such sentences of the formula as
“continues occupation of Azeri lands”, “condition in the occupied
territories” were unacceptable for Armenia. Though Azerbaijan failed
in UN that can be no relief to Armenia and Karabakh.

By Tatoul Hakobian

–Boundary_(ID_Gj5carxjR6swCZ22qnWQaA)–