Baku looks for an OSCE replacement everywhere, even in Socialist International

PanARMENIAN.Net - Otherwise, such an absurd proposal would not simply have been voiced. Apparently, losing hope of snatching the process out of the hands of the OSCE Minsk Group and suffering a total fiasco in the UN, Azerbaijan decided to try its luck elsewhere. And tomorrow we may face a situation when the Karabakh conflict should be settled by UNICEF, or any other organization; mercifully they are quite a lot in the world.

But seriously speaking, Baku is totally reluctant to regulate the conflict and all of her “proposals and approval of the renewed Madrid principles” are simply cliches that conceal the total militarization of the country. By the way, it would be useful to remind that even the principle of territorial integrity in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue cannot be made use of. As it is known, Azerbaijan became a member of the EU in 1992 with the same borders it has today. But in 1989, according to the USSR legislation, Nagorno-Karabakh stopped to be part of Azerbaijan, and in 1991 a referendum on independence was held. So, by no law can Azerbaijan complain of any violation of its territorial integrity. And here again we face the legacy of the Soviet Union, which transformed the post-Soviet territory in a huge blaze in which there have remained only a few quiet regions. But nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. And all because of the “willful decisions of the Party, the Government and Comrade Stalin”, who played with people like tin soldiers. As a result, people who lived on their own land, found themselves in other countries and in the circle of other people, who, to put it mildly, would not favour the newcomers. And even now they do not favour them, and the events in Kyrgyzstan can serve as proof. But at the dawn of Perestroika, shortly before the collapse, there already began collisions in Osh because of “strawberries”, as explained by Rafik Nishanov, Chairman of the Council of Nationalities in the Supreme Council of the USSR....

But let us revert to our conflict, because even if the events in Kyrgyzstan concern Armenia, then only in the sense of the CSTO, and a bit of the CIS. By the way, only a couple of people in Armenia know what's really going on in Kyrgyzstan, yet it wouldn’t keep most of the Armenian political scientists from analyzing the situation....

As for territorial integrity, there is no such thing now, because the Yalta model of the post-war world order does not work. The Helsinki Act of 1975 reaffirmed the provisions on integrity of a state, but added also the right of nations to self-determination. Later, last year, the peaceful regulation of the conflict was added. And no one knows what amendments should be expected in future. It is logical that the Yalta model could not work for a long time, taking into account the position of signatory powers: the USSR, UK and USA. The USSR luckily collapsed, burying the friendship of nations, internationalism, and many other unnecessary things in the world in which the most important thing was their own interests. The U.S. and the UK have long been sharing the same position on major international issues. There remain the peoples who want to simply live in peace and harmony at home. But this is exactly what they cannot do.

The OSCE Minsk Group, this private club of the powerful, least of all cares about regulation of the Karabakh conflict. The main thing is its own interests, and therefore various plans of settlement are proposed, the mediators being well aware that one of the parties will always disagree. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan is looking for new organizations and suggests replacing the OSCE Minsk Group, until she feels she is ready for one-day war. Aliyev will not have a chance to fight longer as it is necessary to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan. So, apparently, there won’t be a major war in Karabakh, until the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan. However, nobody (even Obama) knows when this will happen.