Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

MG Mediators Make New Push For NK Settlement

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

  • MG Mediators Make New Push For NK Settlement

    MG MEDIATORS MAKE NEW PUSH FOR NK SETTLEMENT
    Havilah Hoffman

    EurasiaNet, NY
    May 4 2006

    International mediators are making another push to break the deadlock
    in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks.

    The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is charged with
    mediating peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, met in Moscow
    on May 2-3. They decided to dispatch the French Minsk Group co-chair
    Bernard Fassier to Yerevan and Baku to update Armenian and Azerbaijani
    officials on negotiation proposals. Fassier is expected to arrive in
    Baku on May 5, the Trend news agency reported. Hopes for a breakthrough
    in peace talks diminished in February, when a summit meeting between
    Armenian President Robert Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart,
    Ilham Aliyev, failed to make headway on a settlement framework. [For
    background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    The meeting of the Minsk Group co-chairs followed Aliyev's visit to
    Washington in late April. The Karabakh peace issue figured prominently
    in Aliyev's meeting with US President George W. Bush [For background
    see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Those talks gave top Azerbaijani
    officials the impression that the United States, which is represented
    in the Minsk Group, would strengthen its backing for Azerbaijan's
    negotiating position. In a May 1 interview with Lider TV, Azerbaijani
    Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that "the US president and
    government are ready to take any measures necessary for the rapid
    settlement of the conflict."

    Meanwhile, a recent report prepared by the Crisis Group called on
    the European Union to assume a more active role in the Karabakh peace
    process, independent of the Minsk Group's mediation efforts. France
    is the only state that has Minsk Group representation, as well as EU
    membership. Russia is the other Minsk Group co-chair.

    The report, titled Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus: The EU Role,
    urged the EU to enhance its diplomatic influence by opening "fully
    staffed European Commission delegations in Baku and Yerevan." The
    EU should also formulate initiatives that create a more favorable
    negotiating environment, the report argued. "Sending military and
    civilian assessment missions to the region could give new impetus to
    the negotiation process," it said.

    Using "the lure of greater integration into Europe," the EU can
    encourage negotiating flexibility from both Armenia and Azerbaijan,
    the report suggested. "Compared with other actors, the EU can offer
    added value as an 'honest broker' - free from traditional US/Russia
    rivalries," the report said.

    So far, the EU has refrained from a direct role in the Karabakh
    peace process. Brussels has been more active in promoting security
    in Georgia, where the government in Tbilisi wants to reintegrate the
    separatist entities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. At the same time,
    the EU isn't playing a direct role in political talks covering South
    Ossetia and Abkhazia. "The South Caucasus is one of the few regions
    where the EU has the crisis management capabilities to address existing
    conflicts," the report said. "It should do more with the instruments
    at its disposal."

    The report warned that all three conflicts retain the potential
    to reignite, citing the fact that "gunfire is still exchanged,
    especially on the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire line." Stronger EU
    participation could keep the peace processes from derailing, the
    report indicated. "If the Georgian-South Ossetian and Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflicts continue to deteriorate, the EU may find itself unprepared
    for responding to wars among its neighbors," the report cautioned.

    Editor's Note: Havilah Hoffman is an editorial assistant for EurasiaNet
    in New York.
Working...
X