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FOREIGN POLICY JOURNAL: RISK OF ERUPTING INTO CONFLICT INCREASING NOW
arminfo
Friday, May 4, 22:37
Irish Chairmanship of the OSCE will need to address the problem of
wrong qualification of pogroms of Armenians in Azerbaijan. Hovhannes
Nikoghosyan, the author of the item "A War That Has Been Neglected
Since 1994" in Foreign Policy Journal, have arrived at such
conclusion.
Recounting the conflicts in the South Caucasus and Transdniestria the
author writes: "A smoldering conflict is often not about absence of
any peace initiatives. It is substantially about an unwillingness of
either of the parties to commit to negotiated agreements once out of
the meeting room. This is especially true about the peace talks on
Nagorno Karabakh, where the geography of negotiations since the
ceasefire was established in 1994 (and even between the war of
1992-94) covers the most beautiful cities on the planet-Rome,
Helsinki, Prague, Lisbon, Moscow, Paris, Key West, Madrid, etc.-while
any progress is hardly visible. A "no war, no peace" situation has
been the only and appreciated result of peace talks, which is now
under increasing risk to erupt into conflict as both sides are engaged
in a Cold war-style "deterrence" with extensive military buildup."
"When foreign diplomats or my fellow colleagues from political science
disciplines elaborate on commonalities between the conflict in Ulster
and others in, for example, the former Soviet Union areas, including
Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia (both now partially
recognized by few states), and Transdniestria, I always pinpoint on
two key differences: a) decisive international involvement; and b)
maturity of political and community leaderships," Nikoghosyan writes.
The author draws parallels between the Karabakh conflict and the
conflict in Northern Ireland. "One of the most tragic events in the
Troubles, "Bloody Sunday" of January 1972, may serve as an example to
show one difference between Great Britain and Azerbaijan-two
metropolises that had been trying to keep their conflict regions
inside the common area. While after "Bloody Sunday" the Westminster
immediately rushed into whitewashing the tragedy and justifying the
killings of mostly unarmed civilian protesters in the streets of
Derry, the Tony Blair Cabinet established the so-called Saville
Inquiry in 1998, which came out with a final report in 2010 and
contained rightful and lawful elaborations on the "usual suspects".
This bloody event might be much similar to what happened in Sumgayit,
a town in still Soviet Azerbaijan in February 1988, where Armenians
were being executed for the sake of their ethnic origins, just because
few days before, on February 20, the legislature in the
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) capital Stepanakert applied
with a petition to the Kremlin to re-join Soviet Armenia. The same
policy of pogroms against Armenians later unfolded in Baku, Kirovabad,
and other cities and villages of Azerbaijan in the late years of the
Soviet Union's existence. Though the Soviets staged some prosecutions
to punish anti- Armenian pogroms in Sumgayit (and not anywhere else),
only few suspects got prison terms for "hooliganism and mass riots".
Instead of blaming and shaming for the ethnic cleansings, which might
have put the follow-up events into another channel, most suspects were
freed in the courtrooms or sentenced to conditional terms. Absence of
any "Saville Inquiry", and moreover a policy of whitewashing the
history and blaming Armenians themselves "for provocations that led to
pogroms", is what qualitatively distinguishes the Karabakh case from
the success story in Northern Ireland. This is what I think the next
similar conference, hosted by Irish Chairmanship of the OSCE, will
need to address," Nikoghosyan wrties.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
arminfo
Friday, May 4, 22:37
Irish Chairmanship of the OSCE will need to address the problem of
wrong qualification of pogroms of Armenians in Azerbaijan. Hovhannes
Nikoghosyan, the author of the item "A War That Has Been Neglected
Since 1994" in Foreign Policy Journal, have arrived at such
conclusion.
Recounting the conflicts in the South Caucasus and Transdniestria the
author writes: "A smoldering conflict is often not about absence of
any peace initiatives. It is substantially about an unwillingness of
either of the parties to commit to negotiated agreements once out of
the meeting room. This is especially true about the peace talks on
Nagorno Karabakh, where the geography of negotiations since the
ceasefire was established in 1994 (and even between the war of
1992-94) covers the most beautiful cities on the planet-Rome,
Helsinki, Prague, Lisbon, Moscow, Paris, Key West, Madrid, etc.-while
any progress is hardly visible. A "no war, no peace" situation has
been the only and appreciated result of peace talks, which is now
under increasing risk to erupt into conflict as both sides are engaged
in a Cold war-style "deterrence" with extensive military buildup."
"When foreign diplomats or my fellow colleagues from political science
disciplines elaborate on commonalities between the conflict in Ulster
and others in, for example, the former Soviet Union areas, including
Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia (both now partially
recognized by few states), and Transdniestria, I always pinpoint on
two key differences: a) decisive international involvement; and b)
maturity of political and community leaderships," Nikoghosyan writes.
The author draws parallels between the Karabakh conflict and the
conflict in Northern Ireland. "One of the most tragic events in the
Troubles, "Bloody Sunday" of January 1972, may serve as an example to
show one difference between Great Britain and Azerbaijan-two
metropolises that had been trying to keep their conflict regions
inside the common area. While after "Bloody Sunday" the Westminster
immediately rushed into whitewashing the tragedy and justifying the
killings of mostly unarmed civilian protesters in the streets of
Derry, the Tony Blair Cabinet established the so-called Saville
Inquiry in 1998, which came out with a final report in 2010 and
contained rightful and lawful elaborations on the "usual suspects".
This bloody event might be much similar to what happened in Sumgayit,
a town in still Soviet Azerbaijan in February 1988, where Armenians
were being executed for the sake of their ethnic origins, just because
few days before, on February 20, the legislature in the
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) capital Stepanakert applied
with a petition to the Kremlin to re-join Soviet Armenia. The same
policy of pogroms against Armenians later unfolded in Baku, Kirovabad,
and other cities and villages of Azerbaijan in the late years of the
Soviet Union's existence. Though the Soviets staged some prosecutions
to punish anti- Armenian pogroms in Sumgayit (and not anywhere else),
only few suspects got prison terms for "hooliganism and mass riots".
Instead of blaming and shaming for the ethnic cleansings, which might
have put the follow-up events into another channel, most suspects were
freed in the courtrooms or sentenced to conditional terms. Absence of
any "Saville Inquiry", and moreover a policy of whitewashing the
history and blaming Armenians themselves "for provocations that led to
pogroms", is what qualitatively distinguishes the Karabakh case from
the success story in Northern Ireland. This is what I think the next
similar conference, hosted by Irish Chairmanship of the OSCE, will
need to address," Nikoghosyan wrties.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress