ON CONFLICT REGULATION, MANTLE OF "INTERNATIONAL LAW STANDARDS" SHOULD BE CHANGED
Karine Ter-Sahakyan
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.02.2009 GMT+04:00
The Azerbaijani President must do his best to assure his people he
is the only president powerful enough to return the lands lost under
his father.
The latest statement of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict regulation was rather unexpected. As a matter of principle,
the mediators said nothing new, simply repeating the ideas voiced last
year. Yerevan treated the statement rather calmly, especially since it
primarily referred to the position of Azerbaijan in the negotiation
process. Once again the Co-chairs highlighted the importance
of the exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. "Non-use of force is the core element of any just and
lasting settlement of a conflict," said the OSCE MG statement.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ However, this statement was unacceptable for Official
Baku, who, staying true to her habit of laying the blame on others,
considers that the OSCE MG Co-chairs’ statement should have been
addressed to Armenia, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman declared,
"Turan" reports.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman found nothing better but to
declare that Armenia has been looking forward to a military solution to
the conflict. "Azerbaijani territories are occupied by the Armenian
Armed Forces. So, the Co-chars should address their statement to
Armenia. Armenia must be required to find a peaceful solution to the
conflict and withdraw her troops from the Azeri lands," Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim’s declaration might be the answer to Armenian Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandian’s statements issued in Europe and Yerevan, in which
he said that with her militarist statements Azerbaijan jeopardized the
future of negotiation process. In a wider sense, RA Foreign Minister
said nothing new – the Co-chairs, as well as the whole international
community know it quite well. Only, Baku has obviously gone too far
lately, either hoping for alternative ways of delivering gas to Europe
or relying on Turkey, or any other country, in Â"resolutenessÂ" to
settle the Karabakh conflict in a military way. Everything is possible
– no one knows how far Baku can go with this rhetoric and with the
tactless remarks by Khazar Ibrahim concerning Armenian figures of
different ranks.
Most likely, Baku has decided to in some way Â"markÂ" the 21st
anniversary of the Karabakh movement. Is it unintentionally that the
Co-chairs’ statement was made on the eve of February 20? They say
there is nothing accidental in politics and such kind of statements
are called to warn the chief players against Â"going to extremesÂ".
But it is also a fact that only a little time is left before the
referendum on amendments to the Azerbaijani Constitution, or, to be
more exact, before recognizing Aliyev a president for life. That is
why the Azerbaijani President must do his best to assure his people
he is the only president powerful enough to return the lands lost
under his father.
Meanwhile, according to Russian expert Alexei Vlasov, it is absolutely
obvious that the more complex and contradicting the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue is from the point of view of foreign arbiters, the simpler and
clearer it is from the point of view of those living in Azerbaijan
and Armenia. "This difference in approaches makes the Karabakh issue
highly explosive, even at a most remote approximation to its discussion
or on the level of expert meetings. The standards of international
law have long lost their magnetism as a model for a just resolution
of such conflicts," Vlasov says and he is somewhat right if we take
into consideration the examples of Kosovo, South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
and still earlier those of East Timor and Eritrea.
So, the mantle of Â"international law standardsÂ" should be changed
and the outdated principles of the 80’s avoided, and Baku can hardly
fail to understand that…
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress