Ariel Cohen voices only those things, which Baku wants to hear

March 2, 2011 - 16:41 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - For over two years Baku was speaking about the inability of the OSCE Minsk Group to solve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and was trying by fair means or foul to transfer the conflict resolution to other instances.

To this end, it engaged “its” American experts, namely Ariel Cohen, Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.

According to Cohen, prevention of the conflict escalation on the contact line of the armed forces is among top priorities. It is clear. But it is followed by a complete absurdity: “Second, it is important to convince the OSCE Minsk Group members to either look more actively for the Karabakh conflict solution, or transfer its settlement to another organization, for example, to the EU. It can be also a trilateral forum. But it is necessary to get the process moving. Territorial integrity of any state, in this case of Azerbaijan, is an absolute value. As for Nagorno Karabakh’s status, a formula for the matter solution has been already offered, it includes expression of will and it is clear that all citizens of Azerbaijan should participate in this referendum, including residents of Nagorno Karabakh, as well as forcibly displaced Azerbaijanis. The world community factually recognizes the borders of the former Soviet republics, and there is a principle of not changing these borders. This is important for all conflicts in South Caucasus. A similar approach suggests that Nagorno Karabakh should remain within Azerbaijan’s composition as autonomy,” he said.

The falseness of allegedly nice theory is evident. It is interesting how seven or eight millions of Azerbaijanis are going to decide on Nagorno Karabakh’s future.

While an expert should not voice phrases like “Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is an absolute value.” Most likely, The Heritage Foundation does not want to get rid of its oil dependence. Maybe, it is unable to do so – Azerbaijan’s ties with leading politicians and institutions of the U.S. are clearly proven even in huge flow of doubtful information published by WikiLeaks.

Besides, it is strange that Cohen, being an expert for the region, has not observed the vulnerability of Azerbaijan’s stance on many matters, including Nagorno Karabakh.