ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN MULL THEÅLAND MODEL
By Emil Danielian and Kenan Guluzade in the land Islands
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
Sept 28 2006
Could the Finnish-Swedish arrangement for the land Islands work for
Nagorny Karabakh?
Finland’s Åland Islands, an archipelago mainly populated by ethnic
Swedes, enjoy extensive self-government that makes them effectively
independent of Helsinki. It is an example that has long been proposed
for the resolution of the Nagorny Karabakh dispute, yet never found
universal acceptance.
A visit to the islands by a group of Armenian and Azerbaijani
IWPR journalists, supported by the Åland Islands Peace Institute,
highlighted the success of the formula of autonomy found for the
islands themselves as well as lessons for the unresolved Karabakh
dispute.
Perhaps the most obvious difference is that Finland and Sweden never
went to war over the cluster of more than 6,000 islands and islets
in the Baltic Sea. The heavily wooded region was for centuries part
of the Swedish Kingdom before being incorporated into the Russian
Empire (along with modern-day Finland) in 1809. Its overwhelmingly
Swedish-speaking population demanded reunification with Sweden as
the empire crumbled and Finland became independent in 1917. The Finns
rejected these demands and turned to the League of Nations for support.
Under a compromise solution forged in 1921, the islands were declared
part of Finland but granted a considerable degree of independence. As
Peter Lindback, the territory’s Helsinki-appointed governor, puts it,
"Åland is not an autonomous region. It’s a partly independent state."
In line with its internationally-guaranteed status, Åland has
an elected legislative assembly, Lagtinget, that forms the local
government responsible for economic development, education, healthcare,
and policing. Even the region’s governor, whose powers are largely
ceremonial, cannot be named by the president of Finland without the
assembly’s consent. With Swedish being the islands’ sole official
language, few locals speak Finnish or have social or cultural links
with mainland Finland. Three-quarters of young Ålanders choose to get
higher education in nearby Sweden. Ethnic Finns now make up just five
per cent of the 27,000-strong local population.
The picturesque archipelago is also a demilitarised zone, meaning
that Finnish troops cannot be stationed there in peacetime.
Furthermore, international treaties signed by Finland have to
be ratified by Lagtinget if they are to have a legal force on the
islands. Finland, for example, had to negotiate a special membership
"protocol" for Åland when it joined the European Union in 1995.
Ålanders, who are not just at peace but also prosperous, readily share
their success story with visitors, while stressing that their status
is not necessarily a blueprint for conflict resolution. "Åland is
not a model. It’s just an example," Robert Jansson, director of the
Åland Islands Peace Institute, told visiting IWPR journalists.
Mediators trying to resolve the Karabakh conflict first tried to use
the example of the islands when the war was still raging. In December
1993, with the support of the Finnish government, a symposium was
held in the islands’ capital Marienhamn for parliamentarians from
the region.
Later, a representative of the Peace Institute attended the talks
that led to the May 1994 ceasefire and in 1995, Finland, as then
joint mediators with Russia of the Karabakh dispute, invited the
parties to negotiations in the Åland Islands.
Three years later, the American, French and Russian co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group clearly drew on the example of the islands when they
presented a new peace plan under which Azerbaijan and Karabakh would
form a "common state" made up of two essentially equal entities.
Karabakh would be able to maintain a "national guard" and police force
independent of Baku, establish direct ties with foreign states, block
the entry into force of any Azerbaijani law on its territory, issue
internationally- recognised passports and even have its own currency.
The Armenian authorities in Yerevan and Nagorny Karabakh accepted the
proposed deal with some reservations at the time, while Azerbaijani
leaders rejected it, saying they are only ready to give the Karabakh
Armenians a high degree of conventional autonomy.
However, some are still inspired by the detailed formula for peaceful
co-existence provided by the Åland Islands.
"Even twelve years after the end of fighting in Karabakh, the Åland
model has not lost its meaning as a symbol of resolving disputes
through reason and not through bloodshed and as an intellectual
rebuke to those who call for new bloodshed," Russian diplomat Vladimir
Kazimirov, who negotiated the 1994 ceasefire, wrote recently.
"We should use accumulated international experience to settle the
Karabakh conflict, taking into account the preservation of the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," said Fuad Mustafiev, deputy
leader of Azerbaijan’s opposition Popular Front party.
Azerbaijani opposition political analyst Zardusht Alizade told IWPR
that the principles of the Åland Island dispute "can create a basis
for both peoples – Armenians and Azerbaijanis – to get themselves
out of the trap we have been driven into".
Alizade argues that the Åland model would benefit the Armenians
by giving them a guarantee of permanent democracy and would suit
Azerbaijan in so far as everything would be decided within a legal
framework, "Besides Karabakh will not be detached from the territory
of our state. The international community will act as a guarantor of
security. And most importantly, peace will be established."
However, some Azerbaijanis see the Åland model as a betrayal of
Azerbaijan’s basic interests.
"I am categorically against using the possibility of using any
models of autonomy in relation to Karabakh," Vafa Guluzade, formerly
Azerbaijani state foreign affairs aide, told IWPR. "It is Azerbaijani
land and there are four UN resolutions on the occupation of our
territory."
And most Armenian politicians are also sceptical, holding out for an
even higher level of sovereignty for Nagorny Karabakh.
"In the case of Karabakh, anything falling short of full independence
is unacceptable to us," said Armen Rustamian, a leader of the governing
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (or Dashnak) party who heads the
foreign relations committee of Armenia’s parliament.
Karabakh Armenians, who remain deeply distrustful of Azerbaijan,
argue that the Caucasus is very different from the Baltic.
"May be I would agree to this model if the democratic level in our
countries was the same as in Scandinavia for example," said Karen
Ohanjanian, head of the Helsinki Initiative-92 group in Karabakh,
calling it a "step backwards".
"Azerbaijan is no Finland, and Azerbaijan’s demands and actions
have been very different from Finland’s," said Arman Melikian,
a Yerevan-based senior aide to Arkady Ghukasian, leader of
the unrecognised Nagorny Karabakh Republic (which is still
internationally-recognised Azerbaijani territory.)
In his turn former Azerbaijani foreign minister Tofik Zulfugarov
responded to the statement that "Azerbaijan is not Finland," by saying,
"And the Armenians are not Swedes."
Melikian claims that the Åland model would also not work in Karabakh
because of the often conflicting interests of major world powers
tussling for influence in the South Caucasus. "The Åland islands
were not of strategic importance to Finland, Sweden or any external
power," he said. "The Karabakh problem has much more far-reaching
regional ramifications."
The most recent proposal to resolve the issue of the disputed status
of Nagorny Karabakh proposes a different path. It is for a referendum
on self-determination in Karabakh that would be held years after the
liberation of most of the Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territories
surrounding the disputed enclave.
However, this plan is now in trouble following the breakdown of the
latest peace talks and the final status of Nagorny Karabakh seems as
elusive as ever.
Emil Danielian is a Yerevan-based journalist at Radio Liberty Armenia;
Kenan Guluzade is editor of Zerkalo Newspaper in Baku.
Nagorny Karabakh journalist Karine Ohanian contributed to this report.
–Boundary_(ID_PVyv4rFz2J/O1CtbRwlytA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
