Gazeta SNG: OSCE MG New Proposals Refer to Karabakh Issue Corner Stones

PanARMENIAN.Net - The forced lull continues in the process of settlement of the Karabakh conflict. This is due to the not simple domestic situation both in Azerbaijan and Armenia. This is written in an article published in the Gazeta SNG (CIS Newspaper) titled Forced Lull in the Karabakh Issue. The article author reminds that the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev agreed to take a time-out in the talks during their Kazan meeting in August. «The parties attributed the ceasing of the settlement both with the coming parliamentary election in Azerbaijan and the referendum on constitutional reforms in Armenia November 27. In a statement in Washington on October 26 the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs said they had arranged a number of new proposals, to be presented to the Armenian and Azeri leaders in Ljubljana, where OSCE Foreign Ministers will meet in early December. Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE MG Yuri Merzlyakov stated that the new proposals refers to items, on which Kocharian and Aliyev had not managed to come to agreement. One can only guess which items are meant specifically. The information leakage takes place as a rule when a party is interested in it, the article says.



"It should be reminded that the international community again focused on the Karabakh settlement this spring and summer and a conclusion could be made from the numerous articles on the topic that the "oldest" conflict in the post-soviet space will soon be solved. However, there was no miracle and the 2 or 3 items over which a common approach was not found brought to naught all OSCE MG efforts. The Azeri party has stated many times the format of the talks should be changed. Gathering all official and "confidential" information concerning Karabakh during past few months will result in the following notion. The MG proposed the stepwise-package settlement format - the authorities of the unrecognized republic withdraw their troops from the occupied regions of Azerbaijan, Azeri refugees return to those regions, and a referendum on the status of the republic is held in the NKR in 10-15 years.



Two out of the 7 so-called occupied territories became a stumbling block - Lachin, the corridor connecting the Armenian populated Karabakh with Armenia, and Shushi town, predominantly populated by Azeris before the military conflict. The second largest town of Karabakh - Shushi - is situated near the capital of the unrecognized republic, i.e. Stepanakert. The NKR capital is surrounded with mountains from all sides, while Shushi (like other neighboring former Azeri settlements) is situated high, from where the capital was fired upon by means of Grad emplacements in September 1991 - May 1992. Thus, counting upon return of either the town of the only road connecting Karabakh with Armenia to Azerbaijan in the foreseeable future is at least naïve. The parties did not manage to come to an agreement on the date of the referendum in NKR either. Yerevan considers that "if we give the lands now what is the sense of a referendum in the future?" Baku does not accept another principle of solving the issue, except "territorial integrity of Azerbaijan." The maximum to which the Azeri authorities agree is widest autonomy to the NK as part of the republic. The OSCE MG new proposals exactly refer to such corner stones.



Out of all unrecognized states of the post-soviet space the NKR can be considered the best formed and strongest in respect of economic and military development and democratic reforms. As different from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, adjacent to Russia, and Transdniestria, leaning exclusively to Moscow, the NKR pursues a diversified policy. E.g. simultaneous to multi-lateral ties with Russia, the NKR gets annual financial assistance from the US. It is not a secret that Stepanakert follows events in Kosovo with attention. The principle here is the same - the principle of self-determination of peoples. It should be noted that the number of western politicians, who comment on the Karabakh settlement attributing it to the peoples' right to self-determination increases," the publication says.