Updated Madrid principles: Baku claims to have accepted document,
expects Yerevan to follow suit

Analysis | 21.05.10 | 13:28

Photolure

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan

By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Official Baku declares it accepts the updated Madrid principles for
the settlement of the Karabakh problem.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, speaking about the
details of the updated version of the principles, noted that `the
updated version presented in Athens creates opportunities for further
steps on a significant agreement.’

Under the document that international mediators propose as a basis for
a future peace deal on the first stage Armenian defense forces are to
withdraw from the districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, except the
Kelbajar and Lachin districts that immediately border on Armenia. (It
is stipulated that the Armenian forces should first leave not the
entire Lachin district, but its 13 villages.)

After that, according to the Azerbaijani diplomat, `all borders and
communications will be opened, programs will be launched, the issue of
international observers will be solved considering the importance of
the security of returning internally displaced persons to the places
of their former residence.’

The next stage: the return of the Azerbaijani community to Karabakh
and creation of conditions for the start of the process on determining
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Azerbaijani diplomat said that `in the world there are different
types of autonomies and statuses … For example, Tatars, Bashkir also
realized their self-determination, but within the boundaries of the
Russian Federation.’

Baku-based political analyst Rauf Mirkadyrov, analyzing the statement
of Mammadyarov, says that `everything is clear about things that
concern the phased withdrawal from occupied territories and
restoration of communications.’ But then, he says, there are no
specifics in the minister’s statements.’

The analyst says that Mammadyarov, speaking about the determination of
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh after the return of internally
displaced persons, outlines the position of Azerbaijan in the
implementation of the principle of self-determination, which is based
on giving broad autonomy to Nagorno-Karabakh, while Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity is maintained. However, the analyst doubts that
the updated Madrid principles clearly state the definition of the
final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity.

`Most likely, the document refers to the settlement of the conflict
with the consideration of the principles of territorial integrity and
the right of peoples to self-determination. If it weren’t so, the
foreign minister would have cited the phrase verbatim,’ says
Mirkadyrov.

The issue of the updated Madrid principles was discussed at the
meeting on May 17 in Baku between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan said that `Azerbaijan has always shown a constructive approach
to resolving the conflict. In particular, the fact that Azerbaijan has
had a positive attitude towards the latest proposal of the co-chairs
of the [OSCE] Minsk Group and Armenia has not yet expressed its
attitude to this issue, demonstrates Azerbaijan’s constructive
approach in this matter.’

President Ilham Aliyev also addressed this issue. He said: `As regards
the proposal made on the basis of the updated Madrid principles, the
Azerbaijani side, in principle, with very few exceptions, has accepted
the proposal. We expect a similar approach from the Armenian side.
Despite the fact that about six months have passed since the formal
submission of the proposal, no positive response has yet been received
from the Armenian side. Either it [the Armenian side] answers in the
affirmative and we move closer to resolving the issue, or else it
gives a negative answer and thus the negotiation process will be
disrupted and a new period may begin between Armenia and Azerbaijan.’

He did not say whether this new period will be a period of military
tension or not.

Armenian political analyst Samvel Martirosyan believes that an updated
version of the Madrid principles is not very different from the basic
ones.

In his opinion, Azerbaijan is now trying to show it accepts the
principles of settlement, while as a matter of fact it sets a
precondition: only on the basis of preserving the territorial
integrity of the [Azerbaijani] republic within its Soviet borders.

Martirosyan says that in this case `Armenia in equally measure accepts
the Madrid principles, but with its own precondition –
Nagorno-Karabakh in no case can be part of Azerbaijan.’

President Serzh Sargsyan’s speech at the Chatham House British Royal
Institute of International Affairs on February 10, 2010 is considered
to be Yerevan’s official reaction to the updated Madrid principles.

Later, in March, in an interview with EuroNews, a leading pan-European
television news channel, the Armenian president noted:
`Nagorno-Karabakh was not a part of independent Azerbaijan. It was the
Caucasus Bureau of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which
attached Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan. Why did the international
community acclaim the collapse of the Soviet Union and not consider
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan part and
parcel of the Soviet Union? And in the case with Karabakh the
international community is still saying it is an integral part of
Azerbaidjan? It is not logical, is it?’

The Armenian side has not made any new statements after those
statements. Though, as political analysts think, the best statement
would be a normal conduct of parliamentary elections in
Nagorno-Karabakh slated for May 23.