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  • Resumption of military actions is dangerous for Azerbaijan

    Azat Artsakh - Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
    April 1, 2004

    RESUMPTION OF MILITARY ACTIONS IS DANGEROUS FOR AZERBAIJAN

    The chairman of the NKR National Assembly committee of foreign
    relationships Vahram Atanessian does not think that after being
    elected president Ilham Aliev will carry on with his fathers' policy.
    "I said this on one occasion. The young president does not have
    authority in the country as his father used to have, and naturally it
    takes time for him to gain self-confidence in the post of president.
    I think he will use the time in his favour, that is he will not make
    such decisions that may cause shocks in the Azerbaijani republic. On
    the other hand, I do not think that father president Aliev was so
    peace-loving or was so enthusiastic with the settlement of the
    Karabakh conflict as some Armenian politicians often state. In this
    respect I do not see any obvious differences in the approaches adopted
    by father Aliev and today's announcements of son Aliev. As to the
    economic development of Azerbaijan, I think this is another myth that
    is again used in Azerbaijan as a home consumption good. The problem of
    export of the Azerbaijani oil today also continues to be under
    suspicion. Up today the serious Azerbaijani experts think that
    building the whole economy of the country on the export of oil may be
    harmful for Azerbaijan in the sense that in case of certain economic
    progress it will be a more dependent country than any other country of
    the region where the foreign investments are second to the investments
    in Azerbaijan. The West, making investments of billions of dollars,
    cannot admit the militarist announcements of Azerbaijan." May the
    economic progress enable Azerbaijan to militarize its political,
    economic and all the other institutions? "I think no because the West
    will be bound to defend all its investments through peace first of
    all." Answering the question of talks in the Azerbaijani political
    circles to regulate the problem by use of force, Vahram Atanessian
    said, "I do not share the viewpoint that the recent home political
    developments in Armenia will be used by Azerbaijan to solve the
    problem of Karabakh though military ways, because any escalation in
    Armenia and the South Caucasian region on the whole is not favourable
    for Azerbaijan as a situation has occurred when all the countries are
    interested in promoting peace and not making a step backward.
    Azerbaijan may achieve something through talks, I mean compromises
    that should be made by both Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan. That the
    neighbour countries may make use of the instability of the home
    situation of one another, I think that if guarded by this logic since
    1994 we have had many occasions to make use of the already unstable
    home political situation in Azerbaijan." In reference to the
    negotiations for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, V. Atanessian
    mentioned, "In Azerbaijan, Karabakh and Armenia researches are done on
    this matter. I think instead of analyses it is necessary to think
    about withdrawing the problem from the deadlock situation. There is an
    impression that the situation is favourable for all the parties and
    the parties themselves do not want to find the clue to the settlement,
    so the inertness of the parties also brings about inertness among the
    mediators. In my opinion, the cause for the present situation is that
    NKR as a party of the conflict was left out of the negotiation
    process, and it is time that the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
    find a way to liven up the negotiation process. I do not think the
    clue to the settlement of the problem is outside the region. We are
    still guided by the former stereotypes, that is when the Soviet Union
    existed yet, the parties anticipated the reconciling mission of Moscow
    but its results became obvious in 1989-1991. Such behaviour of Moscow,
    to be frank, provoked an armed conflict. I think that today no
    international organization, be it the Council of Europe, the European
    Union, NATO or the UN, cannot undertake the mission of reconciliation.
    What today takes place in Kosovo is on the responsibility of NATO
    which months on bombed Yugoslavia and the UN that is the guarantor of
    peace in Kosovo. I think the three conflict parties should assume the
    responsibility: NKR, Azerbaijan and Armenia. For example, since 1994
    the cease-fire is maintained in the area of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani
    conflict, and there are no interested parties here. If the cease-fire
    was maintained with the participation of the international
    peacekeeping forces, in ten years the cease-fire would be broken at
    least ten times." "I am sure that on the occasion of the tenth
    anniversary of the cease-fire the Azerbaijani authorities in the face
    of the president of Azerbaijan will stand forth with the willingness
    of Azerbaijan to maintain the cease-fire. The probability of
    resumption of military actions is first of all dangerous for
    Azerbaijan in some respects, and especially, from the point of view of
    preserving the political system," said Vahram Atanessian.

    NVARD OHANJANIAN.
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