VLADIMIR KAZIMIROV EXCLUDES ANY MILITARY SOLUTION TO THE KARABAGH CONFLICT

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2009-05-22 16:13
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

"Between mid-1993 and May 1994, short-term cease-fire was achieved
6 times, which was agreed by Baku and Stepanakert, under Russia’s
mediation. They were bilateral agreements, without Yerevan’s
participation", stated at his press-conference in Stepanakert Vladimir
Kazimirov – Deputy Chairman of the Russian Diplomats’ Association,
leader of the Russian mediation mission, Plenipotentiary of the RF
President on Nagorno Karabagh between April 1992 and September 1996,
and a member of the OSCE Minsk Group from Russia.

According to him, an agreement on long-term cease-fire in the
Azerbaijani-Karabagh conflict was achieved under Russia’s mediation,
the initial priority of which was in the soonest cessation of the
large-scale hostilities.

The diplomat excludes any military solution to the conflict. According
to him, the international community will negatively respond to the
resumption of the hostilities.

"Military activities will hardly resolve the issue: a new turn in a
madness spiral will pass, and the parties will sooner or later have to
negotiate, the losses being quite great. The approximate balance of
forces testifies that no blitzkrieg, taken place in Serbian Kraina,
can be applicable for this region", noted the diplomat, adding that
there wou ld hardy be any great international powers fostering the
hostilities.

According to Vladimir Kazimirov, the Azerbaijani-Karabagh conflict
is keener than any other one.

"It has a great pre-history and is considerably burdened with it. So,
the goal in this case is more complicated than lifting mutual claims in
the conflict. The matter is not only to suppress the conflict, but also
to cease the century-old hostility and conflicts between the Armenians
and Azerbaijanis, to find a way to their historical conciliation".

The diplomat considers that the region’s significance has considerably
increased for the last decades.

"The region is strategically significant and, at the same time,
highly explosive. These peculiarities of the region require extreme
caution in the actions", emphasized Vladimir Kazimirov.