ARMENIA CALLS ON AZERBAIJAN TO SIGN NON-AGGRESSION PACT

World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
March 22, 2010

Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan during an interview with Euronews
television channel on 21 March urged neighbouring Azerbaijan to sign
a non- aggression pact to facilitate talks over the long-lasting
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The broadcast offer comes
only a few days after Sargsyan indicated that he was ready to accept
the Madrid Principles drawn up in 2007 by the tripartite Minsk Group
(United States, Russia and France) of the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). If endorsed, the deal will provide
the Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan a temporary status and
will implement a string of confidence-building measures. Azerbaijani
president Ilham Aliyev has admitted that the talks were on their last
legs, but he added that the final deal must include the full return
of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan, a demand that contradicts the
Madrid Principles. Meanwhile, Sargsyan has reiterated his government’s
commitment to support Nagorno-Karabakh’s right to self-determination,
adding that the region was awarded to Azerbaijan by Stalin in 1923,
meaning that the current border arrangements lack any credibility.

Significance:Sargsyan’s proposal is a constructive offer that
will help to put the difficult 17-year-long negotiations on a more
co-operative track. In recent years Azerbaijan, bolstered by its
windfall profits from Caspian Sea oil and gas exports, has been
investing heavily into its army, which currently has a budget five
times larger than Armenia’s. Rather than trying to solve the conflict
that claimed about 30,000 lives over 1988-1994 through peace talks,
the Azerbaijani government has made no secret of its plans to launch
a new war and force the breakaway region in the country’s west to come
back under its control (seeArmenia – Azerbaijan: 23 November 2009:).

Azerbaijan’s ultimatum that it will use force if its conditions are
not fully met continues to cause international criticism.

International mediators are likely to back the Armenian proposal to
force Azerbaijan to rule out the use of violence as an option for the
resolution of this protracted conflict and embrace more peaceful means.