AMERICAN POLITICIAN CONSIDERS BAKU’S CRITICISM AGAINST MEDIATORS AS TACTICAL STEP
Trend News Agency
April 1 2008
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 April /Trend News/ "Sharp criticism by Baku
against the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmen, especially the USA, is a
tactical step to strengthen the support for Azerbaijan’s position,"
said Zeyno Baran, Director of the Center for Eurasian Policy of
Hudson Institute.
The UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Resolution on
Nagorno-Karabakh ‘was a response to the declaration of Kosovo’s
independence and the large support it gained from the West,’ Zeyno
Baran said in his interview with Armenian Mediamax news agency.
" Baku is concerned that Kosovo will be used as a precedent and
Georgia shares this concern. Thus, this Resolution can be considered
as a policy to ‘forestall’ such development of the events.
Furthermore, I think that taking into consideration the fact that
Russia uses the issue of precedent of Kosovo with regards to Abkhazia
and South Ossetia, Baku (and Tbilisi) wanted to gain confirmation
that Kosovo will be considered as a unique case and to see how the
Russians will vote," the American politician said.
According to her, concerns are growing in Azerbaijan that the West
unfairly approaches it because it is a Muslim country. " Azerbaijan
sees how the USA decisively supports the territorial integrity of
Georgia, but does not see the same attitude towards itself. Of
course, considering the fact that the USA is the co-chairman country
of the OSCE Minsk Group, the American Government cannot hold any
other position on Nagorno-Karabakh. Unfortunately, it is difficult
for the ordinary Azerbaijanis to understand this difference. Many
Azerbaijanis consider that Azerbaijan is an important ally of the USA
with regards to the energy security, its fight against terrorism and
other issues, but does not receive much in reply. However, I think
that officials and large part of the Azerbaijani society accept the
importance of partnership with the USA and will not allow the
Resolution to bring harm to relations between Baku and Washington,"
Baran said.
Azerbaijan recently appealed to the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna to
know the procedures of appointing and recalling the co-chairmen of
the OSCE Minsk Group. The local media sources report that it is
caused by the dissatisfaction of the Azerbaijani Government with the
issue that the co-chairman countries (the USA, France and Russia)
voted against the adoption of the Resolution on the Situation in
Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan during the session of the UN
General Assembly on 14 March.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries appeared in
1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenia
has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani lands including the
Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. Since
1992 to the present time, these territories have been under Armenian
occupation. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire
agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are holding
peaceful negotiations.