WAR IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE IF THERE IS LARGE-SCALE CRISIS IN REGION, RUSSIAN POLITICAL SCIENTIST CLAIMS

NOYAN TAPAN

Ju ne 11, 2008

YEREVAN, JUNE 11, NOYAN TAPAN. "Progress cannot be meant in
the regulation of the Nagorno Karabakh issue." This opinion was
expressed by political scientist Sergey Markedonov during the June
11 Yerevan-Baku-Moscow TV bridge in the "Novosti" international press
center. According to him, the fact that Armenian-Azeri border incidents
have increased recently speaks about that.

Asim Moladze, an MP of the Milli Majlis, the Chairman of the Democratic
Reforms Party of Azerbaijan and another participant of the TV bridge
dedicated to the results of the meeting held in Petersburg between
Serge Sargsian, the President of Armenia, and Ilham Aliev, the
President of Azerbaijan, characterized that meeting to be of cognitive
nature and the negotiation an imitation. However, according to him,
any bad peace is better than war and not the creation of a new state
but the possibility of self-government should be meant.

Opposing the claim of Shavarsh Kocharian, the Chairman of the National
Democratic Party, according to which it is impossible to expect
anything with regard to this issue as far as Karabakh is not a party
of the negotiations, historian Eldar Ismaylov mentioned that there is
no need to include Karabakh as a party in the process as political
figures of Karabakh origin from Armenia take part, in particular,
RA President Serge Sargsian is meant.

In response to the question of an Azeri journalist of why Karabakh is
not for the highest level of self-government like that of Tatarstan
making part of Russia, Russian political scientist Markedonov mentioned
that it is a quite different format: there was no three-year war
between Tatarstan and Russia like between Karabakh and Azerbaijan,
Tatarstan has not declared about coming out of Russia’s structure, to
name but a few. In response to the question of an Armenian journalist
of how likely is the restart of military actions, the political
scientist said that war is always possible if there is a large-scale
crisis in the region. In response to the question of whether the
Madrid principles of the Karabakh regulation can serve as basis for
regulation, S. Markedonov mentioned that "there are many raw places"
in the suggestions, the demand of societies for making copromises
should serve as basis for regulation.

The viewpoints of Armenian and Russian experts often brought forth
revolts of Azeri side. Political scientist Alexander Iskandarian
mentioned that the fact that even experts speak to each other with
cudgels speaks about the current state of the regulation process,
whereas it is necessary that there should be a struggle of viewpoints
and not a struggle according to national belonging.