MOSCOW’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS RENEWED HOSTILITIES BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA…
Today
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May 21 2010
Azerbaijan
Day.Az interview with editor-in-chief of Russia-based Kommersant
newspaper, member of the Central Council of the All-Russia Congress
of Azerbaijanis Azer Mursaliyev.
In your opinion, did the Russian President’s latest visit to Turkey
and Turkish PM’s recent visit to Azerbaijan revive the resolution of
the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to a certain extent?
Numerous bilateral and trilateral initiatives on resolution of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have been advanced so
far. None of them have led to real resolution of the conflict.
Similarly, the above said visits have caused no shifts in the conflict
resolution. There is simply working process underway.
In your opinion, has Russia changed its stance in terms of
understanding causes and consequences of the Armenia-Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?
If you talk about general trends, Russian political elite perceives
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia as a kind
of reality. Few people in the Russian establishment are interested
in what are the real causes and consequences of this conflict.
They are more interested in what consequences resumed military action
between Azerbaijan and Armenia will have and whether it will affect
Russia since the hostilities will take place not far from the southern
borders of Russia which can cause many problems for the country.
Therefore, "frozen" state of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict is more advantageous for the Russian political elite.
Then why Armenia is dissatisfied with the rapid warming in the
Russian-Turkish relations?
I find it difficult to say why Armenia is so indignant over overall
development of Russian-Turkish relations. It can be assumed there
is a reasonable cause. But equally, we can assume that there is
no reason for Armenia’s concern and all its fears over the current
warming in the Russian-Turkish relations are groundless. In general,
speaking about the Azerbaijani-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
it should be noted that Armenia must either admit the annexation of
Azerbaijan’s territories or it should liberate them.
There are no prerequisites for the world community to accept the
fact of annexation of Azerbaijan’s territories by Armenia. Similarly,
Armenia has no ability to absorb the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
Therefore, it is possible that the Armenian political establishment
will finally understand that Azerbaijan’s occupied lands must be
liberated. Naturally, an understanding of this fact in Armenia is
transformed into a search of what could be bargained in the case of
de-occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories.
It is believed that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan can decide to
de-occupy Azerbaijan’s territories if only he is given guarantees by
superpowers that he will not be ousted.
Such a version, like many other versions, has a right to exist. But
in my opinion, no leader of any state in the world can argue with
certainty that disgruntled people will never stage a revolt in his
country. Moreover, the world history has seen no cases when conflict
resolution depended on a single person, head of the country involved
in this conflict. But there are many examples of how conflicts
are solved if there is a consensus of all parties involved in
its settlement. Such a consensus does not exist in case of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.