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  • Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Human Rights Perspective

    The Diplomatic Insight
    May 31, 2014 Saturday


    Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Human Rights Perspective

    by Muhammad Asif Noor
    Vol. 7 No. 5



    Bitterly we paid for this maturity, bitter was the price for crushing
    our great trust, a crushing which reminds us of 9 January 1905. We,
    first the people of Karabakh, then the people of Armenia, marched to
    the winter palace, to the Lenin square in Stepanakert, and to the
    theater square in Yerevan, convinced that the central power would
    understand us. We marched with words of trust in the land of
    socialism, in the Russian people, in Perestroika, with portraits of
    the secretary general of the party, M.S. Gorbachev. But against us
    fire was opened.

    The fire was the unjust solutions of the Politburo and the Supreme
    Soviet, lies created with the help of mass information, a blackening
    propaganda which witnessed of badly concealed benevolence to the
    Azerbaijani side.

    The fire was Sumgait.' Silva Kaputikian, 1988. he Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflict in the Caucasian region is simmering for decades now with
    worst human rights atrocities by Armenian occupied forces since the
    time of inception of this conflict. Various reports of international
    nature have pointed out the war crimes of Armenia in the region
    including grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions which means holding
    hostage; and killings of war prisoners. The resulting displacement of
    the people, who have fled to save their lives became refugees in the
    region, they are also posing as a threat to the political and
    strategic environment.

    They are facing worst kinds of human rights sufferings that one can
    imagine. According to one census report, around 250,000 Azeri refugees
    took solace in Azerbaijan due to fear of ethnic cleansing and killings
    at the time of ceasefire in 1994. In the context of the contemporary
    regional and international political environment where human security
    is the first priority of many nation states, such kind of inhumane
    treatment and conditions are not acceptable to any international law
    providing security to humans who are suffering and facing the brunt of
    conflicts and violence.

    Policy of genocide used by Armenian forces during the period of 1988
    till 1989 has killed thousands of innocent people, they were either
    deported from their places of permanent resident or being subjected to
    worst kind of human rights violations. The conflict needs a just and
    righteous solution and people who are suffering looking towards the
    party of the conflict and also towards international community for
    support.

    The history of the conflict dates back to the times of Russian Empire
    stretching its boarders around the region, for its ever increasing
    access of Russian access to the shores of Persian Gulf. Russian began
    exploiting the Armenian factor as early as eighteenth century. It is
    also believed that the conflict is rooted in expansionism and a policy
    of aggression aimed at expanding the territory of Armenia by force at
    the expense of the territory of another sovereign state.

    The policy of aggression continued to build up resulting in the
    violations of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan region. The
    hostilities of Armenia began to mount till the end of 1991 and in
    early 1992, the massacre of Khojaly, by Armenian forces in February
    1992, caused the conflict to flare up into a war. More than 800
    peaceful residents, including women and children, were slaughtered,
    raising voices and concern in the international community. Human
    Rights Watch called this as " the largest massacre of the conflict".

    Only crime of the residents of this beautiful town was that they were
    Azerbaijanis and nothing else. Thousands of people of Khojaly have
    been mercilessly killed or taken into hostage The Armenian aggression
    spread far beyond the administrative boundaries of the region to the
    rest of Azerbaijan.

    Between May 1992 and May 1994, six districts of Azerbaijan were
    occupied. This makes 20 per cent of the territory of Azerbaijan which
    has been annexed while, according to a report, almost 700 populated
    centers were destroyed. Number of refugees and displaced population is
    over 1 million. The conflict further escalated after the independence
    of Azerbaijan and Armenia. By the end of 1993, the conflict has caused
    thousands of casualties and refugees. Finally a ceasefire was reached
    in May 1994 through Russian negotiations.

    After the cease fire in May 1994 till this day, Azerbaijan has taken a
    just stand for the resolution of peaceful dispute of the conflict
    while keeping in focus the plight of the suffering humanity. One of
    the major factor in the resolution of the conflict is to have a safe
    return of the refugees by creating " buffer zones' once the occupied
    territory would be returned. According to reports, houses, fields of
    Azeris, who have fled their land and took refuge, have been burnt or
    mined by the Armenians.

    In this circumstance return of the refugees would have a potential to
    lead a desire for revenge among civilians. If there would be a
    backlash on these people then that would create further more problem.
    So before returning, there is a need for creation of safe zones. Now
    here one scholar suggest that question of giving guarantees will be a
    crucial one given the distrust that both the ethnic identities have on
    each other.

    In the words of Baibourtian, 'Armenia has been given guarantees before
    [referring to the time of the First World War primarily]; any nation
    which has suffered a Genocide needs to be careful'.

    There were various initiatives put forward by the international and
    regional powers for a peaceful and just solution of Nagorno-Karabakh.
    One is creating of Minsk group which was initiated Organization for
    Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to encourage a peaceful,
    negotiated resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia
    over Nagorno-Karabakh established in 1992.

    The main objectives of the Minsk Process are as follows: Providing an
    appropriate framework for conflict resolution in the way of assuring
    the negotiation process supported by the Minsk Group; Obtaining
    conclusion by the Parties of an agreement on the cessation of the
    armed conflict in order to permit the convening of the Minsk
    Conference; Promoting the peace process by deploying OSCE
    multinational peacekeeping forces. The Minsk Group is headed by a
    co-chairmanship consisting of France, Russia and the United States.

    Furthermore, the Minsk Group also includes the following participating
    states: Belarus, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden,
    Finland, Turkey as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has
    distrust on the Minsk group, co-chaired by Russia, France and US.

    Reason being is that there is large number of Armenian community
    living in these state and has put considerable pressure for derailing
    of the peace process. If that was not enough, another reason put
    forward by the Azerbaijani side is that the group does not put enough
    pressure on Armenia to return Nagorno-Karabakh territory to
    Azerbaijan, and of prolonging the negotiations indefinitely.

    The peace process initiated by the Minsk group has an unfortunate
    status as it has given a very little progress, till yet, moved few
    steps in the direction of peace. Armenians are not willing to withdraw
    troops from Azeri territories until Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as
    independent; Azerbaijan insists on its complete territorial integrity
    and demands the withdrawal of Armenian troops before it will discuss
    any other matters, including the eventual status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The locking of positions of both states has made a stalemate and lead
    of continue suffering of humanity of the region. President of
    Azerbaijan while once talking to media commented on the status of this
    dispute said "The most important problem of the Azerbaijani people and
    the state remains the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, which
    marked the beginning of the Karabakh conflict.

    This conflict is still unresolved. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is
    the greatest threat to peace and stability in the region" He further
    added that the OSCE, Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the
    OIC and other international organizations have adopted documents,
    which expressed support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
    But Armenia ignores the opinions of these organizations.

    For many years engaged in the settlement of the conflict the OSCE
    Minsk Group. With the mediation role of the countries like U.S.,
    Russia and France where the group has organized various meeting of the
    presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the solution is not in sight. It
    is also very important to note here that because of the destructive
    position of Armenia, the conflict remains unresolved.

    Most foreign actors have also positioned themselves between these
    extreme viewpoints, like for example, role of Russia, United States,
    France, Turkey and Iran has resulted into furthering complexity of the
    problem. The solution of this problem is based on the fact
    Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be resolved by peaceful means, based on
    international law and within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.




    From: A. Papazian
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