Azeri opposition paper critical of foreign minister’s Karabakh policy

Yeni Musavat, Baku
7 Dec 04 p 4

Text of Zahid report by Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat on 7
December headlined “Mammadyarov’s groundless optimism” and “The
minister claims that the Karabakh talks have entered ‘a second stage'”

The traditional annual meeting of OSCE foreign ministers started its
work in Sofia yesterday. Azerbaijan is represented by Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov at the meeting. According to available information,
the minister is expected to address his foreign counterparts. He
is also planning to meet Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
within the framework of the summit. It is curi ous that although it
was reported earlier that all three co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk
Group would join the meeting, Oskanyan said that only one of them
will come to Sofia.

If this fact is confirmed, this will be another confirmation
that there is really no constructive atmosphere in the Nagornyy
Karabakh talks. Otherwise, the mediators would be happy to join
the discussions. It seems that the mediators are also tired of the
tedious and nonproductive settlement process. The only person that
does not get tired is our foreign minister. Ostensibly, Mammadyarov
is very keen on sitting and chatting with his Armenian friend. He is
so keen that he used the following pithy phrase in connection with
the forthcoming meeting: “The first stage of the negotiations has
ended successfully and we are starting the second stage.”

Of course, there are some questions in this case. First, if the
negotiations are really successful, why did official Baku have to
raise the issue with the UN? On the other hand, what “second stage”
is he talking about? What miracle or progress happened and what did
we achieve in the first stage of the negotiations to make Mammadyarov
say now that “it is time to step into the second stage”? Maybe Mr
Mammadyarov thinks that the public still believes such fairy tales
by Azerbaijani officials? Maybe, he has not lived in the country for
a long time. For this reason, he probably thinks that the regime’s
plan of lies and falsifications has not been fulfilled yet.

And Oskanyan did not share the optimism of his Azerbaijani counterpart,
of course. If this man keeps saying on behalf of his government almost
every week and what’s more with full confidence that “Nagornyy Karabakh
has never been and will never be part of independent Azerbaijan”,
what rapprochement and “already completed first stage” is Mammadyarov
talking about? No-one, apart from the foreign minister himself,
knows for whom and why this stage has come to an end.

According to information received yesterday evening, the ministers
finally met. The meeting is said to have taken place with the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs in attendance. The sides discussed the prospects
for solving the Nagornyy Karabakh problem. But as can be seen from
everything, the Karabakh conflict is still not a priority issue
for the OSCE. The subject of Ukraine is in the focus of the OSCE’s
Sofia summit.