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  • Armenia, Azerbaijan Mull The Land Model

    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
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