Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 29, 2006 Friday

ALIYEV SEARCHES FOR A NEW PEACEKEEPING FORMAT

by Sohbet Mamedov

BAKU OFFERS EUROPE ENERGY IN RETURN FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION;
The authorities of Azerbaijan insist on an expansion in the format of
the peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev retains the hopes to enlarge the
format of the Karabakh conflict resolution and to have other
international structures pooling their efforts with those of the OSCE
Minsk Group. Aliyev was one of the authors and promoters of the idea
to include on the agenda of the session of the 61st UN General
Assembly of the issue "Latent conflicts in GUAM countries, their
consequences for international peace, security, and development".
Aliyev also brought up the issue of Karabakh at the international
forum Bertelsmann’2006 in Berlin.

Aliyev made his point. He said that Europe should become deeper
involved in the Karabakh conflict resolution and therefore help
establish peace in the region if it wanted energy security for itself
and regular deliveries of energy resources from Azerbaijan.

Local analysts say that Aliyev’s initiatives in Europe indicate
Baku’s disappointment with the course of the peace process and world
powers’ performance (Washington and Moscow) as mediators in
resolution of the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku political scientist Alpai Ahmed says that
Russia and the United States support territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan only in words but never take any practical steps in this
sphere. According to Ahmed, Moscow is even supplying weapons and
military hardware to Armenia (occupier of almost 20% of the territory
of Azerbaijan) while the US Administration prompted by the strong
Armenian lobby in the US Congress finances Yerevan.

Azerbaijani political scientists say that Azerbaijan does not really
have a choice in the situation being what it is. It needs a new
format in the conflict resolution or it will have to launch a
military operation to finally liberate its own territory. Calls for
the latter option become louder and louder in Baku. The powerful
non-governmental Karabakh Liberation Organization drafted the
National Platform of Karabakh Conflict Resolution the other day.
Organization leader Akif Nagi told journalists that the document
viewed a military solution as "the only acceptable means of conflict
resolution within the framework of Azerbaijani national interests."

Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, September 26, 2006, p. 6

Translated by A. Ignatkin