PanARMENIAN.Net

All the OSCE MG statements are nothing but an empty set of phrases
addressed to nowhere

Karine Ter-Sahakyan

One thing remains obscure, why should «heroic seven-million
strong» Azerbaijan fear «poor and cowardly»
Armenia?
07.03.2009 GMT+04:00

Within two days the OSCE Minsk Group made two nearly identical
declarations. The declarations are practically the same, and, to tell
the truth, the first thing that occurs to you is `Why are they doing
it’? In a wider sense, any such declaration is a usual practice in
such formats of conflict regulation. From time to time they have to
remind you about their uniqueness and semblance of work. And now you
must be blind not to see that the mediators’ activity has long become
a fiction. However, it is the frequency of the OSCE MG statements that
puts us on our guard ` in fact, it was the third declaration issued
since February 19.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Naturally enough, all the statements are nothing but
an empty set of phrases addressed to nowhere. Baku has always upset
and will upset any kind of monitoring activity, has conducted and will
conduct anti-Armenian campaign, and the Co-chairs can never lay down
the law for her. The other day Ilham Aliyev stated that `The world
crisis has bypassed Azerbaijan’. And very soon we may hear that
Azerbaijan exists in an utterly different planet¦ Never mind! But
there is another interesting point too: Baku keeps speaking of poor
Armenia, demoralized Armenian Army, and anything that comes to their
mind. But in all the statements only fear is felt. Not unknown Mubariz
Ahmedoghlu came to the point of uttering that Armenian politicians
start their day with reading Day.az. Well, he can think so if he
likes. Surely we read Azeri press but solely in order to find out to
what extent the Azeri nation expresses its animal hatred against the
Armenians. One thing remains obscure, why should «heroic
seven-million strong» Azerbaijan fear «poor and
cowardly» Armenia?

And against this background the OSCE Minsk Group issues an optimistic
declaration: `The Co-Chairs deplore that in 2008 over 30 people were
killed and more than 50 injured, and another six killed since the
beginning of this year, as a result of ceasefire violations. The
Co-Chairs urge the parties to review again their proposal to
consolidate the ceasefire, which was made at the OSCE Ministerial
Council in Helsinki in December 2008.’

All these statements are presented to the society as
«preparation for a new summit between Presidents Sargsyan and
Aliyev». Even without the mediators’ words it was clear that
the Presidents were going to meet again, by the way in April or in
May, i.e. either at the Energy Summit in Sophia or at the meeting on
`Eastern Partnership’ in Prague. You needn’t be an oracle or a
mediator to realize it. But it’s a fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue is little by little retreating.

According to Expert at RA Center for International & Political
Analysis Ruben Mehrabyan, after reduction of prices on oil and
collapse of world economy, the interest of international community in
the Region flagged. `If several months ago the OSCE Minsk Group took
steps towards speeding up the negotiation process, now it seems, the
already common visits to the Region constitute justification for the
«uniqueness» of the US Co-chair Mathew Bryza, whom the
new US administration may substitute. However, we should not pretend
that the conflict cannot be regulated without Bryza. Everyone knows
that it cannot be settled in the near future,’ Mehrabyan said.

`Unfortunately,’ the expert noted, `the Co-chairs accepted the rules
of the game of conflicting sides against the background of full
imitation of the negotiation process. It would be more advisable for
the world community to use the OSCE MG resources on further
democratization of the states instead of pointless visits.’

But the mediators are in a hurry, or they just pretend to be. The
thing is that there is a possibility of substitution in the group of
the three mediators. By the way, it does not only refer to Mathew
Bryza. However, we’ll wait and see, especially since the mediators
themselves are as usual optimistic.

`We welcome the frank and open discussions of these issues with the
two Presidents since their last meeting in Zurich, and hope to
continue to make progress in the talks by clarifying and narrowing the
differences between the sides so that a peaceful settlement can be
reached in the soonest possible timeframe,’ the OSCE MG statement
goes.

And, of course, the mediators condemned the upset of the
monitoring. However, there is just one trouble – Personal
Representative of the Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk
did not dare name the real offender of February 26.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress