Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ISTANBUL: Azerbaijan uneasy over France's mediating role in dispute

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ISTANBUL: Azerbaijan uneasy over France's mediating role in dispute

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    Jan 1 2012

    Azerbaijan uneasy over France's mediating role in dispute with Armenia

    1 January 2012 / MAHIR ZEYNALOV, Ä°STANBUL

    It was a signal designed to send chills through Paris: Azerbaijani
    parliamentary members warned in a letter to the French Senate that
    France may cast a shadow over its neutrality with regards to its
    mediating role within a body assigned to peacefully solve its dispute
    with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh following the passing of a
    controversial bill by the French parliament that made it a crime to
    deny the World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide.
    The letter sent to the French Senate Friday simply echoed Azerbaijan's
    concerns over the genocide-denial bill the lower house of the French
    parliament adopted a week ago.

    IIn the latest twist in the saga, a group of Azerbaijani activists
    burned a French flag in front of French embassy in the capital city of
    Baku on Friday, demanding France leave its position in the Minsk
    Group, a platform of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
    Europe (OSCE) aimed at mediating peace talks between Azerbaijan and
    Armenia.

    Ali Hasanov, head of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration's
    Social and Political Department, added fuel to an ongoing debate in
    Azerbaijan as to whether or not France could be an honest broker in
    the two-decade long conflict that has kept peace away from the South
    Caucasus. Recalling Turkish President Abdullah Gül's earlier remarks
    about France's role in the Minsk Group, Hasanov told reporters
    Thursday that France's mediating role in the group will be discussed
    at the next meeting.

    The Turkish president urged France on Friday to withdraw from the
    Minsk Group if the bill recently approved by the French National
    Assembly becomes law.

    The bill sets a punishment of up to a year in prison and a fine of
    45,000 euros ($59,000) for those who deny or `outrageously minimize'
    the alleged genocide of Armenians in eastern Anatolia during the final
    years of the Ottoman Empire, putting such action on par with denial of
    the Holocaust. The bill now needs to be passed by the Senate, the
    upper house of parliament, before it comes into effect.

    The disputed genocide of 1915 has been a matter of fuming discussions
    between Turks and Armenians, as Armenians claim Ottoman Turks carried
    out a systematic mass murder of Armenians with the aim of eradicating
    them from the country. Turks say Armenians were deported when they
    took up arms against the state at a time of chaos as the Ottoman
    Empire crumbled and modern day Turkey's founders fought a political,
    armed war against foreign forces that tried to take over the country.
    Most of the casualties occurred when deported Armenians were not able
    to survive on the road to their destinations under extreme
    circumstances, although Armenians raise allegations that the deaths
    were intentional.

    Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry officials declined to comment on the matter.

    Earlier this week, however, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman
    Elman Abdullayev said that considering France is one of the co-chairs
    of the Minsk Group, it is saddening to see that some members of the
    French parliament have become hostages of the Armenian diaspora. He
    said if France takes a principled approach to certain issues, it
    should also look into the Khojaly massacre, where hundreds of
    Azerbaijani civilians were slaughtered by Armenians in 1992.

    Rovshan Ibrahimov, a professor with Azerbaijan's Qafqaz University,
    played down tensions between Azerbaijan and France over the
    genocide-denial bill. Recalling Turkish Economy Minister Zafer
    Ã?aÄ?layan's statement that Turkey is not going to boycott French goods,
    Ibrahimov questioned why Azerbaijan should bother.

    Ã?aÄ?layan said last week that French investments in Turkey are safe,
    ruling out any boycott to French goods but suggested that `consumers
    might take matters into their own hands.'

    Ibrahimov, who also presides over the foreign policy department at
    Baku's Center for Strategic Studies (SAM), said it is difficult to
    link the French bill to France's mediating role in the OSCE Minsk
    Group, yet he said France's political approach to a matter that needs
    historical interpretation raises serious questions as to whether or
    not it will put the same scenario into play with respect to the
    Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

    `France has totally lost its reputation by endorsing this bill,' Asim
    Mollazade, leader of Azerbaijan's Democratic Reforms Party, said. He
    added it is obvious that the French leadership is under the influence
    of the Armenian diaspora.

    Mollazade, who is also a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, said
    Azerbaijan must work to replace France with the European Union as a
    mediator in the Minsk Group, which he said may push progress in the
    perpetual conflict.

    According to the Azerbaijani politician, the French parliament has
    intervened in something that is out of its jurisdiction. He said the
    bill, restricting freedom of expression and thought, in fact is
    against the `spirit of France and Europe.'

    He added that he thinks the French bill has primarily been designed
    and calculated for the presidential elections in France slated for
    April of next year. `This plan is all about [French President Nicolas]
    Sarkozy and his party's aim to benefit from [the] Armenian diaspora
    during the elections,' Mollazade said, adding that French authorities
    had stopped the bill several times in the past and that the declining
    popularity of their party has forced them to shift their position.

Working...
X