EuFoA: Azerbaijan’s hostility key obstacle for Karabakh settlement

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hopes had been flying high ahead of the Kazan summit of June 24, with the Minsk Group Co-Chairs repeatedly stating that the document for a solution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict now balances postulates of all parties to the conflict. However, despite the intensive pressure of the Co-Chairs, the Kazan summit did not offer the expected breakthrough, the European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) said in a statement.

“It was visible in Kazan and even before that Azerbaijan does not agree to the package of the Basic Principles proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group. Likewise, they refuse the withdrawal of snipers and any other measure leading to more stability and trust”, commented EuFoA Secretary General, Michael Kambeck.

“Instead all that Azerbaijan communicates is that a new military escalation is not a question of IF, but of WHEN and HOW. Following Kazan and yesterday’s parade in Baku, the world must accept that rationality is no longer the right basis for our assessments. We must stop calling upon both sides, when there is visibly one side that first torpedoes every progress and then uses the lack thereof to justify war.”

During a military parade on Sunday, June 26, Azerbaijan displayed its newest offensive military equipment, including unmanned attack drones, which go beyond capacities of, for example, France or the UK. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev used this occasion to repeat his war threats, saying that he is “completely sure that our territorial integrity will be resumed in any possible way”.

EuFoA believes that Europe should prepare now and consider more options to deter from war and to incentivise peace. This way, a diplomatic breakthrough will become more likely. Europe should stop the well intended “calls upon both sides” and instead name and shame each side for their contributions to the escalation. Otherwise, this invites for more escalation.

“Europe should see that the arms race around Karabakh has produced a different situation compared to 1991, when the conflict parties mainly used leftovers from the USSR army. A new war today would most likely come with human losses and a geographic scope incomparable to 1991, or to the Georgian-Russian war in 2008,” the statement says.

“Europe should realize that a new war would most likely come with sever damages to European investments in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas industry and to the energy supply from Azerbaijan at large, including consequent increases in worldwide crude prices.

Europe should read the Azerbaijani leadership’s statements and watch the Azerbaijani armament in order to understand that hostility against the Karabakhi population, which they do not consider their population but merely on their territory, is not some theory but Azerbaijan’s implemented state policy. This hostility is currently the key obstacle for a diplomatic solution.”