Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Feb 19 2008

Svante Cornell: Azerbaijan should ask the world community why there
is no support for the victims of Nagorno Karabakh conflict –
EXCLUSIVE

[ 19 Feb 2008 13:49 ]

Washington. Husniyya Hasanova-APA. Svante Cornell, expert for
Caucasus of Institute for Security and Development Policy of Sweden
interviewed by APA

-The world countries have started to recognize Kosovo’s independence.
Do you think that some states will take the same approach to Nagorno
Karabakh in the pretext of recognition of Kosovo’s independence?

– Basically, my answer will be this. First the Armenian side
certainly will try to make a precedent of Kosovo case and use it as
an argument for the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh by the
international community. However this is not necessarily likely to
happen. But it also depends on the way in which Azerbaijan will deal
with this political situation. What I mean is this: first, obviously
there is difference between the case of Kosovo and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The most important difference it is the issue of ethnic cleansing.
You can say that there are similarities between Kosovo and
Nagorno-Karabakh because of the fact that Kosovo is an ethnical
Albanian state; the Armenians will argue that Nagorno-Karabakh is
second Armenian state and there is nothing strange about it. However,
in Kosovo it is very clear that the ethnic cleansing, a violation of
the international humanitarian law was conducted by the Serbian
government, almost half of the Kosovo population were forced flew
from their homes at some point of conflict or either internally
displaced as refuges. In the case of Karabakh, it was the Azerbaijani
population not only in Karabakh but in the seven regions around
Karabakh was subjected to the process of ethnic cleansing primarily.
This means that in the case of Kosovo aggressor was mother state
which is Serbia, in the case of Karabakh conflict the aggressor is
the state which occupy the territory and it is Armenia. This is
fundamental differences in the conflict which shows that those two
conflicts are not comparable. What I am trying to point here that is
this: the Azerbaijani government has a choice now between at the one
hand to try to oppose during the recognition of Kosovo and implicitly
accept that there is precedent and act against this precedent. I
would think that much more intelligent way to react the situation
would be embrace the situation and to say that in the case of Kosovo
the victims of ethnic cleansing were given the support of
international community however in the case of Azerbaijan we do not
see the same level of support for the victims of ethnic cleansing.

-The world community is not informed well about the differences of
the conflicts of Kosovo and Nagorno Karabakh. Do you think it gives
advantages to Armenian side?

– Let me answer your question in this way: Thanks to the very good
economic situation in the past few years, Azerbaijan has been able
gradually very strongly improve its capacity to carry its message to
the world. I think it will be the first priority of Azerbaijani
government to use these financial abilities in order to in a very
smart way hailer the message and hailer the discussion of the issue
toward international community. And with the help its allies, I think
with the help of the western countries that supported the
independence of Kosovo but who don’t want this translating into the
precedent for the Caucasus, I think Azerbaijan should work both on
the public opinion in the west and secondly should work together with
its western allies to basically make sure that its position is
understood by the western community.

– Do you think Kosovo precedent will complicate the negotiations
around the Nagorno Karabakh conflict?

– I would say that Kosovo question has delayed the procedure of the
conflict resolution in all South Caucasus region. I think for the
past three years at least, it has been an obstacle the Kosovo’s
conflict resolution because everybody was waiting what is gonna
happen in Kosovo. I think that for the certain period of time it will
continue to have an impact on the negotiation process. It is a
delicate situation and difficult situation. The major impact which
the Kosovo case is going to have it will decrease the Armenian sides
interest in a compromise. Already in Armenia you find that there is
an argument that the process of self-determination is gaining the
increasing international recognition. They speak about East Timor,
Eritrea, Montenegro and now about Kosovo. What they are saying is
that the principle of self-determination is getting more ground. What
I think is important to know, especially for Azerbaijan, is that self
determination and territorial integrity not necessarily opposite.
There is not legal provision which say that the self determination is
equal to independence. In this situation it is in the interest of
Armenia to use the Kosovo case as a precedent for Karabakh. However
it will be dependent on the foreign polices of Armenia and Azerbaijan
to present their arguments in front of the world community to see
which one gets support. As we know that the 1990ths Armenia was very
successful in influencing the international opinion and gradually
over time we have relatively increase in Azerbaijan’s ability to
carry its message to the world.