THEY WANT TO INVOLVE STEPANAKERT IN THE TALKS TO BLAME FOR THEIR FAILURE
KarabakhOpen
15-03-2007 10:21:49
After his recent meeting with Ilham Aliyev the French co-chair of
OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier stated that the Karabakh issue may
be resolved this year. He made several other interesting statements.
First the French diplomat said Kosovo cannot be a precedent for
Karabakh, and perhaps for the first time he tried to explain why. He
said Kosovo is an internal problem of a country. In Karabakh, two
factors are present: the internal factor, "for some time Karabakh
was a sovereignty within Azerbaijan", and the external factor, the
conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. There is also a difference
in terms of deployment of the international force.
According to Davit Babayan, a political scientist, the attempt to
explain why Kosovo is not a precedent is commendable. However, he says
these points do not answer the question: will the independence of
the unrecognized countries be recognized? Apparently yes in Kosovo,
not in Karabakh. Fassier also gave lengthy explanations why the fast
return of the Azerbaijani refugees to Karabakh is impossible.
All this happened on the day when the first congress of the Azerbaijani
and Turkish organizations was held in Baku. The Azerbaijani president
Aliyev made several notable statements on this day. Particularly,
he said Armenia was built on the native land of Azerbaijan, and if
Armenia does not give up its present policy, it will stake its own
future. He also said Azerbaijan will never agree to lose Karabakh
and will return its land by all means.
"Mr. Fassier must have heard this. Moreover, he stated that the sooner
Karabakh joins the talks, the better, to keep the balance. Some time
ago this statement would be commendable but now the situation has
changed. The participation of Karabakh in the talks is not an end in
itself. The problem is how they will participate and how it will be
helpful to the settlement.
It is already clear to everyone that the Prague process is about
to die.
Even the defensive stance of Armenia is unable to overcome
revanchist and aggressive Azerbaijan. The only way to reanimate
the process is to involve Karabakh. However, even in this case the
process is doomed. Everybody believes now that the mechanisms on
the ground are not real. If at this point Karabakh joins the talks
and rejects the proposals, Azerbaijan, which is to blame for the
constant failure of the talks will blame Karabakh. So will do the
international organizations. This state of things is not favorable
for Karabakh. The Prague process is doomed. This does not imply the
end of the resolution. No. simply the talks should start anewm and
Karabakh should participate in them," Davit Babayan says.