WPS Agency, Russia
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
February 19, 2010 Friday

A NEW PEACEKEEPER IN SOUTH CAUCASUS;
Intentions of the OSCE Chair were evaluated positively but without optimism

by: Sokhbet Mamedov

WILL KAZAKHSTAN BE ABLE TO MOVE RESOLVING OF CONFLICTS IN THE
POST-SOVIET SPACE FROM THE DEAD POINT?; Chair of the OSCE and Foreign
Minister of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev started his activities on the
European arena from a trip to the South Caucasus. Saudabayev announced
the main goal of Kazakhstan during the period of its chairmanship in
OSCE. This is achievement of progress in resolving of drawn-out
conflicts in the post-Soviet space. There are three of them in the
South Caucasus. After Baku Saudabayev will visit Tbilisi and Yerevan.

Chair of the OSCE and Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev
started his activities on the European arena from a trip to the South
Caucasus. Saudabayev announced the main goal of Kazakhstan during the
period of its chairmanship in OSCE. This is achievement of progress in
resolving of drawn-out conflicts in the post-Soviet space. There are
three of them in the South Caucasus. After Baku Saudabayev will visit
Tbilisi and Yerevan.

Saudabayev was received by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Like
it had been announced, the process of resolving of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict was the main topic of negotiations of
Kanat Saudabayev in Baku.

The visit of incumbent Chair of OSCE to Azerbaijan is a meaningful
event by itself. It was not surprising that attention of not only the
public of Azerbaijan but also the key players in the region was
attracted to it. For example, on the eve of this visit Foreign
Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu announced that Kazakhstan as OSCE
Chair should take important steps for resolving of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In his interview to the Anatolian news
agency he said, "We discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh problem with
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and my colleague Kanat
Saudabayev in detail. We are ready to act in cooperation with
Kazakhstan and Turkey expects taking of important steps for solving of
this problem from Astana."

Welcoming the intention of Astana to start working on the problem of
unresolved conflicts, local experts are not convinced of its
capability to fulfill this plan. According to political analyst Fikret
Sadykhov, it is very unlikely that chairmanship of Kazakhstan in OSCE
will have a big influence on resolving of the problem of
Nagorno-Karabakh. Sadykhov says, "It is necessary to bear in mind the
fact that very strong political players that have their own interests
participate in this process. That is why it will be difficult for
Kazakhstan to do this despite its wish to direct resolving of the
conflict to its peaceful settlement.

Along with this, his colleague Rasim Agayev is convinced that now
Kazakhstan has received a change to demonstrate its intermediary
abilities to the international community and to move the process of
resolving of frozen conflicts from the dead point. Time will show if
Kazakhstan succeeds in this.

People in Yerevan and Tbilisi have a similar mood. Welcoming and
respecting the wish of Astana to bring peace to the region, people in
both capitals said that OSCE had no decisive voice in the process of
conflicts resolving.

Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, February 16, 2010, p. 6