ARMENIAN AND AZERI PRESIDENTS MEET IN KAZAN
By Hakob Chakrian
AZG Armenian Daily #153, 30/08/2005
Meeting
State Secretary Rice Notes the Importance of Settling the Conflict
Through USA
The meeting of the Council of CIS Leaders took place in Kazan, capital
of Tatarstan, on August 26. It lasted not 1.5 hour, as was planned,
but 3.5 overlapping the scheduled briefing. Instead of the conference,
President Vladimir Putin of Russia made a brief statement as though
to emphasize that this institution created by 12 former soviet states
has no future.
President Safarmurad Niyazov of Turkmenistan did not take part in
the meeting, but the other guests participated also in a horse race
for the Cup of Russia’s President, which tend to be the most notable
event of the meeting CIS Council.
President Putin seems to be playing the same role that the last head
of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev, played for the USSR: Putin
is destroying the Russian Federation as Gorbachev destroyed the Soviet
Union. By dismissing the CIS, that is by minimizing zones of Russian
influence, he may well succeed.
A summit of an organization, which was labeled a “useful club” for
“civilized divorce” by Putin in Yerevan March 25, could hardly held
meetings of some importance. Such was perhaps the meeting of Armenian
President Robert Kocharian with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliyev on August 27. Together with Armenian TV companies, Turkish
public TV also informed about it noting, “Kocharian’s spokesperson,
Viktor Soghomonian, said that the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
discussed the Karabakh issue as well. The meeting was positive”.
We have no other information concerning the meeting of Kocharian
and Aliyev, besides the abovementioned evaluation of Soghomonian. It
isn’t conditioned with the close character of the meeting at all. It
is neither caused by the agreement of the sides not to inform the
press on the discussions.
In this case, how can we explain the August 25 telephone conversation
of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with both Robert Kocharian
and Ilham Aliyev? Moreover, we can’t but emphasize the importance of
the conversation on the eve of the meeting. The US State Department
gives the hidden answer to the issue, disseminating the following
press release on the telephone conversations of Mrs. Rice. “She had
telephone conversations to emphasize the importance the US imparts
to the meeting envisaged in Kazan and expressed the hope that the
presidents of both countries will make mutual concessions that are
necessary for the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict,” the press
release said.
It’s obvious that the meeting envisaged within the framework of
the Council of the CIS Presidents, when the sitting touches upon
the coming collapse of the given structure, Presidents of Armenia
and Azerbaijan can’t seriously discuss the Nagorno Karabakh issue,
moreover, they can’t agree on making mutual concessions. Secondly,
though Vladimir Putin tries to limit the areas of Russian influence
and tries to dismiss the CIS, any decision taken in Kazan concerning
NKR would give the initiative in the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh
issue to Russia.
Thus, Russia would also win the initiative in the competition between
Russia and the US for the influence in the South Caucasus. In this
case, it would be much more difficult to banish Russia from the region.
This all gives us grounds to suppose that, in fact, Condoleezza
Rice emphasized the importance of settling the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict at the American initiative, and warned Russia the place of
the president’s meeting can’t have any impact on America’s interest
in the settlement. At the same time, she gave a relevant sign to the
states that try to interfere the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
for having any influence in the region of the South Caucasus.