Miguel Angel Moratinos: This is the best point for taking a decisive
step
04.06.2007 17:23
Tatul Hakobyan
"Radiolur"
The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos, who is meeting with the Azerbaijani authorities in Baku
today, declared in an exclusive interview with Mediamax that Armenia
and Azerbaijan must use the current opportunity to resolve the Nagorno
Karabakh issue.
`This is best point for taking a decisive step,’ OSCE CiO said, who
will meet with Presidents Robert Kocharyan and Arkady Ghukasyan, RA
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in Yerevan tomorrow.
Miguel Angel Moratinos made two interesting comments in the interview.
Commenting on the fact that one of the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries `
Russia ` states that the independence of Kosovo can become a precedent
for settlement of other conflicts, and the other two Co-Chairs ` France
and US ` have the opposite stance, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office stated:
`The conflicts on OSCE territory are extremely different. Russia,
France and the US consider it’s not sensible to use predetermined
formulas, since the great difference of situations makes these
unviable.’
In response to the question whether he believes that Azerbaijan will
really agree to holding a referendum in Nagorno Karabakh? Miguel Angel
Moratinos said: `It’s not easy to combine the principle of sovereignty
and territorial integrity with the principle of the right for
self-determination of peoples. Both are universal principles applicable
under different circumstances. I’m sure Armenia and Azerbaijan have the
opportunity to find a solution, using the more convenient principles to
settle the situation that causes damage to thousands of people who have
the right for worthy, peaceful and welfare life.’
The statement of Armenia’s current authorities that the approach of the
international community toward the Nagorno Karabakh has changed since
1998 is not far from reality. Certainly, Baku continues insisting on
the principle of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, but today the
international community does not take it seriously. For instance, the
OSCE Chairman-in-Office considers the principles of territorial
integrity and the right for self-determination are universal and are
applicable under different circumstances.
One of the former OSCE Chairmen-in-Office Dmitri Rupel also had a
unique approach, which means the philosophy of toward the Karabakh
conflict has changed in the OSCE. Rupel considered Nagorno Karabakh a
disputed territory, and when journalists were drawing parallels between
the four frozen conflicts in the CIS, he was saying the Karabakh
conflict was unique.
The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries have also declared on different
occasions that the issue of Karabakh status should not be predetermined
in the negotiations. For example, in 2002 then US Co-Chair Rudolph
Perina declared that in case of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Transnistria the territorial integrity of Georgia and Moldova must be
resumed, but Nagorno Karabakh is different.
In 2005 US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans declared: `Everyone
understands that return of Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan will be a
disaster.’
Statements of this kind are not accidental and speak about current
trends. These are very important tendencies, which ca work in our favor
if Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh surpass Azerbaijan in democracy,
respect for human rights and rule of law.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
