AZERBAIJAN REFUSES TO SIGN NON-AGGRESSION PACT WITH ARMENIA

World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
March 23 2010

BYLINE: Lilit Gevorgyan

Yesterday, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson rejected
neighbouring Armenia’s proposal to sign a non-aggression pact. The
offer was made on 19 March by Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan
during his interview on the Euronews television channel (seeArmenia –
Azerbaijan: 22 March 2010:). In its response, the Azerbaijan Foreign
Ministry stated that Azerbaijan would retain its right to restore
territorial integrity. Furthermore the spokesperson was quoted by
local media outlets as saying that if Armenia wants to eliminate the
use of force it should eliminate the causes that can lead to the use
of force. The Armenian government has not commented on the Azerbaijani
response yet.

Significance:The Azerbaijani government’s response was quick and
rather predictable. It has long demanded that the Armenians in its
breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh give up theirde factoindependence,
declared over 20 years ago. Azerbaijan also demands the withdrawal
of the Armenian armed forces from the region as well as its
surrounding territories, which have been under Armenian control
since the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in the early 1990s. Military
activity ended in 1994 with a ceasefire agreement, having resulted in
30,000 deaths. The peace process mediated by the Minsk Group of the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has made
no significant headway, since the parties insist on two different
and counterbalancing principles of international law. The Armenian
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh cites its right to self-determination
earned through the war of self defence against the Azerbaijani central
government’s attempts at ethnic cleansing of Armenians in the region.

Conversely, Azerbaijan is adamant that its territorial integrity must
be kept at all costs even if it takes use of force. The refusal to
sign the non-aggression pact indicates that for Azerbaijan, solving
the frozen conflict through a new war in not out of the question.