THE DISCUSSIONS IN UN TURN INTO A SHOW
Vardan Grigoryan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
Oct 8 2007
Armenia

The recent speeches of Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers
delivered in the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly displayed
that the automatic inclusion of Karabakh issue in the list of the
"delayed conflicts" in GUAM territory and the discussion of the issue
from the UN tribune is not only turning into a waste of time but also
jeopardizes the prospect of the negotiations.

Of course the results of V. Oskanyan – E. Mamediarov "propaganda
skirmish" will be evident later, because the issue of shifting the
discussion of "delayed conflicts" to the UN General Assembly touches
not only upon the benefits of Armenia and Azerbaijan but also other
GUAM countries that have not only supporters but also opponents.

But according to Vardan Oskanyan’s well-aimed characteristics, the
variety of the contents of similar "basket" gives futile direction
to the negotiation process.

Here they have mixed not only the problems linked with the present
situation of Trans-Dniester, Abkhazia, South Ossia, and Nagorno
Karabakh, but also the interests of the super powers that have problems
with those and other "small empires" of former Soviet Union.

Thus they create a big hullabaloo and a wide opportunity to hamper
the solution of all those issues.

A question arises here, who benefits from this? Everyone knows that
the resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly are not obligatory
and to move the process of the regulation of the before mentioned
conflicts, during the previous years the international community
has adopted certain formats and the negotiations on the regulation
of Karabakh issue are conducted under the auspices of OSCE Minsk
Group. The answer is evident; it is beneficial to those who are
interested in delaying the negotiation process, those who are not
ready for mutual concessions.

In other case there would have been no need to use GUAM format and
mix Karabakh issue with other post-soviet conflicts. With this
trick Azerbaijan is trying to set up a so-called "double ally"
against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. The first "layer" of this
ally is reserved for GUAM and the second one (a wider structure)
can seemingly be established by the western countries that support
the first one, in GUAM – Russia confrontation.

They are well conscious in Azerbaijan that there is no disagreement
between Russia, the USA, and France regarding the choice of a
model for the regulation of Karabakh conflict. The three of them
have unanimously elaborated a document, which is based on mutual
concessions and respecting the free will of NKR people. To avoid the
implementation of the document Azerbaijan is intentionally delaying
the negotiations and shifts Karabakh issue into GUAM, mixing it for
instance with South-Ossian and Abkhasian conflicts, in the solution of
which the whole West tends to support Georgian territorial integrity.

It is not accidental that V. Oskanyan’s recent speech in the UN
General Assembly was based on the emphases of the peculiarities of
each of the existing conflict. This time he observed the presently
discussed "Kosovo precedent" from the same point of view, thus giving
an "unpleasant surprise" to his Azerbaijani colleague. But V.

Oskanyan believes, the denial of the universality of "Kosovo
precedent" doesn’t mean that except Kosovoars no other people can
get independence.

The most interesting thing here is that, unlike his Armenian colleague,
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister had built his speech based only on
the denial of the universality of "Kosovo precedent", repeating the
international community’s evaluations expressed many times. Moreover,
he even included Russia in the list of those denying the universality
of "Kosovo precedent" and regarding Armenia he said, "Armenia can
say anything, in this respect. This state has occupied the territory
of its neighbor country. The same thing we can say about Kosovo
conflict. International community will never allow Kosovo issue to
become a precedent."

It turns out that baselessly entitling Armenia the intention to
use "Kosovo precedent" Azerbaijani Foreign Minister appeared in
a ridiculous situation, because in his speech V. Oskanyan didn’t
express similar idea. Another more ridiculous fact is that the same
accusation directed to Armenia about occupying the territories of
the neighbor country, E. Mamediarov addressed to Kosovo. It turns out
that Nagorno Karabakh is occupied not by Armenia but the Republic of
Nagorno Karabakh itself.

Thus, as shown by all this, together with other GUAM countries,
the discussions initiated by Azerbaijan in the UN General Assembly,
are turned into a propaganda show and are aimed at speculating and
unceasingly sharpening the contradictions in the post-soviet territory,
between Russia, the USA and the European Union, thus investigating the
results of the negotiations of the previous years in the framework of
OSCE Minsk Group, hold by the practical mediation of those countries.