Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Could Mediators Curtail Baku's Militarism?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Could Mediators Curtail Baku's Militarism?

    COULD MEDIATORS CURTAIL BAKU'S MILITARISM?

    Yerkir.am
    June 02, 2006

    Armenian and Azeri presidents are scheduled to meet on June 4 in
    Bucharest on the sidelines of the Black Sea Dialogue and Partnership
    Summit. This will be the second meeting of the presidents on Karabakh
    conflict this year. The discussion is expected to produce a one-page
    'paper' on the principles of the conflict settlement.

    Armenian FM Vardan Oskanian said that if the parties come to an
    agreement the 'paper' would become a document. But he ruled out that
    the presidents would sing under any document.

    In contrast to the Rambouillet meeting earlier this year, there is
    no significant activeness this time. Mediators, too, voice just a
    cautious optimism.

    The statement the Minsk Group co-chairs made in Baku and Yerevan is
    vigilant. " The time has come for the both sides to reach an agreement
    about the principles of the conflict settlement," this was the key
    of their statements.

    Further, they said that "we are at a stage when mutually favorable
    agreement is possible. Whether this is going to happen depends on
    Armenia and Azerbaijan."

    This vigilance is apparently due to the uncompromising stance of
    Azerbaijan.

    Despite Armenia's willingness to soften its position and announced
    it was ready to discuss the consequences of the conflict if Baku
    recognized the right of the Karbakh people to self-determination,
    Azerbaijan, like before, shows no signs of making even a half-step
    towards easing its toughness. Everyone there is waiting for the
    international community to deliver everything to them, including
    Karabakh. Baku is even threatening to resume the war. But this is
    what the mediators don't have on their minds.

    At least, for now. Therefore, the co-chairs, who seem not to have
    special illusions of a breakthrough in the forthcoming meeting in
    Bucharest, are seeking to get assurances of the conflicting sides
    that they would stick to the peaceful plans of the settlement; and
    first of all from militarism-driven Azerbaijan. In his congratulatory
    message to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Azerbaijan's Day of
    Independence on May 27, US President George W. Bush poi nted out that
    he is looking forward to the Azeri president's continuations to seek
    peaceful settlement for the conflict.

    The same idea was in French President Jacque Chirac's message:
    "The peaceful settlement of the conflict has no alternative; it is
    important to Armenia, Azerbaijan and the entire region," Chirac said
    when meeting with Aliyev in Paris on May 29.
Working...
X