BY KEEPING SILENCE OSCE ENCOURAGES AZERBAIJAN’S MILITARISM
Editorial

Yerkir.am
May 12, 2006

May 10 is the 12th anniversary of the ceasefire on the line of contact
between Karabagh and Azerbaijan. 12 years of ceasefire that has not
yet led to final peace. Therefore, the silence on the line of contact
between the conflicting parties is relative. The war continues.

Experts assure that shots can be heard on the border almost every
day. This means that people get injured or even die. The international
mediators become increasingly worried about this and appeal to the
conflicting parties to stop their militaristic rhetoric.

They appeal to all sides without specifying who makes calls for a
new war.

They do not want to specify not to offend them. Recently shooting
could be heard during the monitoring visit made by OSCE missions. But
even in this case the mediators did not announce from which side the
shootings were heard.

Isn’t it the direct responsibility of the personal representative
of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andze Kasprzik and his field assistants
investigate such incidents and prevent their recurrence in the
future. The great “equality” that they are trying to preserve amounts
to encouragement of Azerbaijan’s militaristic and anti-Armenian
rhetoric.

At the recent hearings in Nagorno Karabagh National Assembly the
Karabagh Minister of Foreign Affairs Georgi Petrossian made a proposal
that all parties should sign a document reasserting the cease fire
regime. No response. This means that the mediators are interested
in this situation because they can use it to achieve their political
objectives.

There can be no other explanation to the mediators’ position: on the
one hand they call for speedy restoration of peace in the region,
on the other hand they support Azerbaijan’s militaristic moods. In
this context, the international organizations’, including OSCE’s,
statements that the responsibility for conflict settlement lies solely
with the conflicting parties is nothing more than a cover under which
they try to avoid their own responsibility for the existing situation.

It is difficult not to agree with the former Russian Co-Chair Vladimir
Kazimirov who stated that OSCE practically does nothing to implement
its only agreement on Karabagh. He was referring to the agreement
signed on February 6, 1995 that aimed at settlement of incidents
and minimization of losses. ” However, Baku does not fulfill this
agreement and keeps silence.

So does OSCE… With such an approach regular monitoring visits will
not prevent complications and people being killed. The arms race
openly launched by Ilham Aliyev deserves criticism. In this case as
well, one can only be surprised with OSCE’s silence,” Kazimirov writes.