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UN SECURITY COUNCIL SEAT LENDS AZERBAIJAN 'MORE CREDIBILITY'
news.az
Oct 27 2011
Azerbaijan
News.Az interviews Amanda Paul, policy analyst on the EU Eastern
Neighbourhood, Russia, Turkey & Eurasia at the European Policy Centre,
Brussels.
What is your view of Azerbaijan's membership of the UN Security
Council?
I think it's a fantastic development for Azerbaijan. It really shows
Azerbaijan's increased importance and recognition of that importance
throughout the world and, of course, the fact that they have this
seat now gives them more credibility on the global stage and could
possibly help them vis-a-vis the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, obviously.
The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh.
Will Azerbaijan be able somehow to help have these resolutions
implemented or at least to make the problem better known in the world?
I think it gives them an opportunity to make the problem more visible
for sure, now that they have this temporary seat. But at the same
time I would be very doubtful whether any of these UN resolutions are
going to be transformed from paper into implementation. They've been
there for nearly 20 years some of them, almost more than 20 years,
so it's very doubtful that it's actually going to change. But I think
Azerbaijan can now do its best to perhaps try and pressure more people
into doing the correct move on trying to find a much quicker resolution
to Nagorno-Karabakh and to have Armenia remove its occupying forces
from Azerbaijani territories in the soonest possible time.
There is much talk about events in the Middle East. What can Azerbaijan
do to make raise awareness of Karabakh in the international community?
The trouble with the Karabakh conflict, as with other conflicts in
this part of the world, is that they've been on the international
community's agenda for so long most people just seem to be prepared
to accept the status quo. OK, there's a concern, but nobody seems to
really believe they're going to escalate into something bigger so I do
think it is going to be quite difficult to increase the visibility of
these conflicts to the top of the international community's agenda
because there are other bigger things going on in the world, and
also because clearly the region is about to enter into a new cycle
of elections and you have the return of Vladimir Putin, so there are
many indicators that are not showing that there's going to be a rapid
solution, or even partial solution, to Nagorno-Karabakh in the near
future, unfortunately.
May the events in the Middle East somehow concern the post-Soviet
republics, including Azerbaijan?
Well, the situations in those countries are quite different to
Azerbaijan so I don't really think they're going to have any impact
to any extensive degree on these countries in the post-Soviet space.
There have been some movements, for example in Armenia, and
obviously there was some small protest in Azerbaijan as well. But
the histories of these two regions are fundamentally different which
makes revolutions in this part of the world, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,
these sorts of places, makes revolution far more difficult to achieve
than in North Africa and the Middle East.
From: Baghdasarian
news.az
Oct 27 2011
Azerbaijan
News.Az interviews Amanda Paul, policy analyst on the EU Eastern
Neighbourhood, Russia, Turkey & Eurasia at the European Policy Centre,
Brussels.
What is your view of Azerbaijan's membership of the UN Security
Council?
I think it's a fantastic development for Azerbaijan. It really shows
Azerbaijan's increased importance and recognition of that importance
throughout the world and, of course, the fact that they have this
seat now gives them more credibility on the global stage and could
possibly help them vis-a-vis the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, obviously.
The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh.
Will Azerbaijan be able somehow to help have these resolutions
implemented or at least to make the problem better known in the world?
I think it gives them an opportunity to make the problem more visible
for sure, now that they have this temporary seat. But at the same
time I would be very doubtful whether any of these UN resolutions are
going to be transformed from paper into implementation. They've been
there for nearly 20 years some of them, almost more than 20 years,
so it's very doubtful that it's actually going to change. But I think
Azerbaijan can now do its best to perhaps try and pressure more people
into doing the correct move on trying to find a much quicker resolution
to Nagorno-Karabakh and to have Armenia remove its occupying forces
from Azerbaijani territories in the soonest possible time.
There is much talk about events in the Middle East. What can Azerbaijan
do to make raise awareness of Karabakh in the international community?
The trouble with the Karabakh conflict, as with other conflicts in
this part of the world, is that they've been on the international
community's agenda for so long most people just seem to be prepared
to accept the status quo. OK, there's a concern, but nobody seems to
really believe they're going to escalate into something bigger so I do
think it is going to be quite difficult to increase the visibility of
these conflicts to the top of the international community's agenda
because there are other bigger things going on in the world, and
also because clearly the region is about to enter into a new cycle
of elections and you have the return of Vladimir Putin, so there are
many indicators that are not showing that there's going to be a rapid
solution, or even partial solution, to Nagorno-Karabakh in the near
future, unfortunately.
May the events in the Middle East somehow concern the post-Soviet
republics, including Azerbaijan?
Well, the situations in those countries are quite different to
Azerbaijan so I don't really think they're going to have any impact
to any extensive degree on these countries in the post-Soviet space.
There have been some movements, for example in Armenia, and
obviously there was some small protest in Azerbaijan as well. But
the histories of these two regions are fundamentally different which
makes revolutions in this part of the world, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,
these sorts of places, makes revolution far more difficult to achieve
than in North Africa and the Middle East.
From: Baghdasarian