Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 20, 2006 Wednesday

UN-IZATION OF POST-SOVIET CONFLICTS

by: Arkady Dubnov

THE UN WILL DISCUSS SUSPENDED CONFLICTS IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION;
The UN will discuss latent conflicts of the post-Soviet zone.

Moldova with its GUAM allies (Georgia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan)
scored a major diplomatic victory on the eve of the referendum in the
Trans-Dniester region. General Committee of the UN General Assembly
supported the bloc’s idea to put the matter of suspended conflicts on
the CIS territory on the agenda. Moscow had killed this discussion at
the UN level in 2005.

The UN did try – more or less – to tackle the Karabakh conflict. As
for the Trans-Dniester region, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, this is
the first time they are about to be in the focus of attention of the
international community. Internationalization of interest in the
post-Soviet zone which Russia views as its own sphere of influence
will have little effect on conflict resolution. Solutions of the UN
General Assembly are recommendations at best. A UN resolution adopted
on a GUAM initiative will put a powerful propagandistic weapon in the
hands of Kishinev, Baku, and Tbilisi.

Armenia was the first to react to the forthcoming involvement of the
UN. Official Yerevan said there would be no talks with Baku for the
time being. That was how Armenia kept its word to suspend
negotiations with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanjan said at his meeting with his Azerbaijani
opposite number Elmar Mamedjarov that the meeting initiated by OSCE
Minsk Group chairmen would never take place in New York on September
24 as scheduled. Oskanjan believes in the meantime that discussion of
the Karabakh conflict by the UN may "slow down" the Minsk process
where "prospects of positive progress are already undeniable."

Since "the process of resolution is shifting to the UN that comprises
191 countries some of which do not even know what the conflict is
about, Nagorno-Karabakh itself must be involved in the process,"
Oskanjan said. "If it is the UN rules that we will play by, then
Azerbaijan should begin negotiations with Nagorno-Karabakh."

Source: Vremya Novosti, September 18, 2006, p. 5