Azeri editor sets up centre to study conflicts in Caucasus

Ekho, Baku
24 May 05

Text of the Information Department report by Azerbaijani newspaper
Ekho on 24 May headlined “‘Karabakh and Chechnya are our priority'”

The Caucasus Centre of Public and Political Technologies has been set
up recently. Our correspondent has met the head of the centre and
editor-in-chief of Realnyy Azerbaydzhan newspaper, Eynulla Fatullayev.

[Correspondent] Why has the centre been set up and what will be the
main areas of its activity?

[Fatullayev] I have been covering and studying all the major ethnic
and political conflicts in the Caucasus as a journalist for several
years. I and like-minded people have been doing serious work over
these years to investigate the causes and consequences of the main
conflicts in the Caucasus, in the first place the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict and the national liberation movement of the Chechen people.

You can ask if I am drawing parallels between these two conflicts,
which concern the inviolability of the territorial integrity of
states. I dare answer no and no again. Representatives of the Chechen
public also say that it is impossible to draw parallels between the
interstate conflict in Nagornyy Karabakh and the problem of
self-determination of the Chechen nation. We have to demonstrate to
the world community that the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict is a classical
example of aggressive and occupying policy of one Caucasian nation
against another. With this being said, our task is also to work out
political and public technologies to effectively facilitate a peace
solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

The problems of Nagornyy Karabakh and Chechnya are a priority for us
since the conflict in Nagornyy Karabakh directly affects the national
and state interests of Azerbaijan, while the Chechen problem is
undoubtedly related to our country’s national security. Experts from
all the countries of the Caucasus will be invited to our centre.

[Correspondent] Well, does it mean that the cornerstone of your
activities will be propaganda of the ideas of a common home in the
Caucasus?

[Fatullayev] Our centre is not for propaganda ends, it is a research
institute. But I have to admit that it is impossible to talk about the
involvement of the Caucasus republics in the processes of integration
into Europe without resolving ethnic and political conflicts in the
Caucasus and expanding integration processes.

[Correspondent] Which of the prominent figures in the Caucasus will
join your centre?

[Fatullayev] I have already suggested that the son of the late Chechen
President Aslan Maskhadov, Anzor Maskhadov, join our centre and I am
glad to say that he has accepted our offer. He will become the
vice-president of the centre.