BAKU RELIES ON MUSLIM STATES AND TRIES TO IMPART KARABAKH ISSUE WITH RELIGIOUS CONTEXT

KarabakhOpen
17-03-2008 10:19:11

"Although the UN General Assembly passed the resolution on
Nagorno-Karabakh, and it is already said to be Azerbaijan’s victory,
the given document is but the diplomatic fiasco of Azerbaijan,"
said the political scientist Davit Babayan in an interview with
Karabakh-Open.com, commenting on the consequences of the passage of
the resolution for the Karabakh settlement.

"The matter is the process itself and details rather than the final
result. The process itself, as well as its details are vivid evidence
to it.

Before the voting a number of influential international organizations,
such as the OSCE Minsk Group, had stated that the resolution does
not reflect what the co-chairs and the conflict sides have been
working on so far, it is one-sided and highly selective of the basic
issues of settlement of the conflict. It selected only what interests
Azerbaijan. The resolution is one-sided and lacks balance and is not
timely. It was unexpected for everyone.

The vote also revealed the attitude of the international community
to this.

Only 39 countries voted for the resolution. The majority of these
states (80 percent) are Muslim. The United States, Russia, France,
Armenia, India, Angola and Vanuatu voted against. One hundred states,
including China, Great Britain, Germany, Brazil, abstained. The
other countries did not participate in the vote. It turns out that
of 192 members of the General Assembly only 20 percent voted for the
resolution. None of the permanent members of the Council of Security,
the chief UN organ, voted for the resolution. Of the 10 non-permanent
members of the Council of Security only two countries, Libya and
Indonesia voted for the resolution, which is 20 percent. Even of
the Turkish-speaking countries which count 7 only three voted for
the resolution, that is less than half. It is clear that thereby the
international community displayed its attitude towards this issue,"
said the political scientist.

"It is clear that thereby Azerbaijan simply undermines the hazy
chance to move toward progress in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue. Azerbaijan is also making efforts to involve the UN in the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is not acceptable
for the sides of the conflict and the mediators which are, apart
from all, permanent members of the UN Council for Security. Moreover,
official Baku has started a dangerous game. It relies on the Muslim
countries and is thereby trying to impart the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict with a religious context. Of the 36 Muslim countries of the
world 33 or 91 percent voted for the resolution. Such a development
contradicts is not in the interests of the main geopolitical actors,"
said Davit Babayan.

In this light, the political scientist thinks that the passage of
this resolution is in the interests of Nagorno-Karabakh. "Firstly,
the resolution is recommendations and is not binding. Secondly,
the actions of Azerbaijan "recommend" the international community,
especially the main geopolitical actors, to draw conclusions regarding
this state and the level of its predictability and reliability,"
the political scientist emphasized.