AZERI PUNDITS, PAPER DOWNBEAT ON TURKISH MEDIATION IN KARABAKH CONFLICT
Yeni Musavat
Zerkalo, Azerbaijan
Sept 9 2008
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani independent political analyst Vafa Quluzada has said that
the Caucasus platform of security and cooperation initiated by Turkey
may replace the OSCE Minsk Group in moves towards the resolution of
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.
"Turkey will replace the West – France and the USA – in the Karabakh
resolution. This will, however, be a completely inactive body,
because Turkey has not so far managed to strengthen its positions
in the Caucasus. The new group to be set up will imitate the OSCE
Minsk Group," Quluzada told the opposition daily Yeni Musavat’s 9
September edition.
Quluzada added that Russia and the West were interested in the
establishment of such a body as they did not want to leave the Karabakh
resolution in the lurch.
"The USA gave its consent for Turkey’s involvement in this
issue. Russia is also interested in the continuation of empty talks,
as they enable Russia to conceal. It wants to show that it is allegedly
involved in the resolution of the frozen conflicts," Quluzada said.
The paper quoted another analyst, Elxan Mehdiyev, as saying that he
did not believe that the developments led to Turkey’s co-chairmanship.
"Because the Minsk Group is involved in this issue and it established a
monopoly on it. Not a single co-chairing country agrees with Turkey’s
one-sided chairmanship. Although a "cold war" has started between
Russia and the USA, both of them regard the conduct of talks in the
OSCE Minsk Group format as satisfactory," Mehdiyev said.
According to the analyst, although Russia is not much interested in
the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, Moscow does not stand in the way
of these relations given Armenia’s isolation.
"Armenia asked Russia to give its consent to talks with Turkey…A
rapprochement is under way between Turkey and Russia. The [Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan regime is conducting this
policy. Russia wants to have the role of Turkey here, but not that
of the USA and Europe," he added.
The independent Zerkalo newspaper reported that Russia was one of
the countries that would generally gain from the situation around
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict and is therefore trying to maintain
the status quo as long as possible.
"Russia is actually becoming a Caucasus monopolist and the situation
with regional stability will not improve: on the contrary, it will
worsen. Naturally, neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan can resolve the
conflict on their own as was the case in Georgia. Of course, it should
also be taken into account that no serious talks about the creation
of new rules of the game have been held between Russia and Turkey,
who want to be the main players in the resolution of this conflict,"
Zerkalo said.
The paper added that the hopelessness of the situation was also
aggravated by the fact that "there is no confidence if Ankara is
ready to sacrifice its good ties with Moscow, which are being formed,
for restricting the Kremlin’s influence on the problem".
The paper said that the conflict resolution was impossible without
overcoming the barriers placed between Azerbaijan and Armenia by Russia
itself and without the regional integration of the whole Caucasus.