BAKU THREATENED TO BREAK RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA
by Grigory Plakhotnikov; Rafael Mustafaev
RusData Dialine – Russian Press Digest
March 17, 2008 Monday
U.N. General Assembly focused Friday on the resolution on Azerbaijan’s
occupied territories that demands from Armenia to immediately pull out
the troops of Nagorny Karabakh. Russia, the United States and France
that co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group for Nagorny Karabakh voted against
the resolution. Baku rebuffed by threatening to break relations with
the opposing states and change the format of the Minsk Group.
Baku submitted the draft to the General Assembly in late February.
The document was put to vote past Friday and rejected by Russia, the
United States and France. Those states co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group
that has endeavored to find a peaceful solution for Nagorny Karabakh
conflict since 1992. The given reasons are that the draft elaborated
by Azerbaijan doesn’t reflect all approaches towards sorting out the
Karabakh problem.
Indeed, the document ignores even the previously reached agreements,
including holding a referendum to determine the status of that
region. "The draft has taken into consideration only some of the basic
settlement principles that correspond to the interests of Azerbaijan
exclusively without mentioning, for instance, the determination of
final legal status of Nagorny Karabakh by holding a plebiscite amid
the population for free and true declaration of will," the RF Foreign
Ministry said in the statement released after voting.
The resolution was voted by 146 of 192 U.N. member-states. Of them,
39 (including 33 Moslem states) upheld the document, seven (Russia,
the U.S., France, Armenia, India, Angola and Vanuatu) rejected it
and 100 preferred to abstain.
Baku rebuffed in no time, threatening to revise the relations with
Moscow, Washington and Paris along with the format of Minsk Group
that has been working in the current form since 1997.