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FORCE ARBITRATION BETWEEN BAKU AND YEREVAN
Naira Hayrumyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/politics26459.html
Published: 17:05:27 - 06/06/2012
Azerbaijan and Armenia blockade the work of the mediators and it
is time to shift from mediation to force arbitration, said Wayne
Merry on June 5 at Woodrow Wilson Center during a discussion of the
Karabakh issue. Merry is a Senior Fellow for Europe and Eurasia at
the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington. According to him,
the Minsk Group is unable to prevent escalation in the region.
Actually, the words force supposes deployment of troops in the conflict
zone. Now, we should suppose that competition will kick off between
the world centers for the right to fulfill the "force arbitration".
It has already been stated in Armenia that such arbitration should be
carried out by Russia. However, it is evident that other OSCE members
would not allow a unilateral decision of this issue, though Russia's
frontier guards are at the Armenia-Turkey border. Most likely, the
U.S. will state that the arbitration should be carried out jointly.
It is noteworthy that the Russian border guards defend only the
Armenian borders with Turkey and Iran, while the borders with
Azerbaijan and Georgia are controlled by the Armenian army. It is not
clear how Armenia and Russia made this division though we often come
across "external borders" of the CIS. In other words, the external
borders are defended by Russia, the internal ones by Armenia. But
Georgia has left the CIS, while the Armenian frontier troops are
still there at the border.
As to the border with Azerbaijan, though officially there is no war,
not the border guards but the Armenian detachments are at the border.
Actually, Russia is defending the "external" borders of CIS which
includes also Azerbaijan. In other words, the Russian border guards do
not perform the function of protecting the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
It can hardly be a function of the Russian base of Armenia which
mostly targets "external enemies", such as NATO as perceived by Russia,
a member of which Turkey is.
So, the Russian military forces cannot defend Armenia from Azerbaijan.
This means that other forces can assume such functions, the OSCE,
for instance. It does not have its own military detachments but it
can delegate the function to NATO.
Armenia has stated more than once that it is categorically against
such intervention because Turkey is a NATO member. There have been
discussions that the peacekeeping force should not be composed of
forces of regional countries.
Perhaps, the OSCE will finally negotiate the mechanisms of
investigation of border incidents. However, for full control, it will
perhaps need mobile forces.
From: A. Papazian
Naira Hayrumyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/politics26459.html
Published: 17:05:27 - 06/06/2012
Azerbaijan and Armenia blockade the work of the mediators and it
is time to shift from mediation to force arbitration, said Wayne
Merry on June 5 at Woodrow Wilson Center during a discussion of the
Karabakh issue. Merry is a Senior Fellow for Europe and Eurasia at
the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington. According to him,
the Minsk Group is unable to prevent escalation in the region.
Actually, the words force supposes deployment of troops in the conflict
zone. Now, we should suppose that competition will kick off between
the world centers for the right to fulfill the "force arbitration".
It has already been stated in Armenia that such arbitration should be
carried out by Russia. However, it is evident that other OSCE members
would not allow a unilateral decision of this issue, though Russia's
frontier guards are at the Armenia-Turkey border. Most likely, the
U.S. will state that the arbitration should be carried out jointly.
It is noteworthy that the Russian border guards defend only the
Armenian borders with Turkey and Iran, while the borders with
Azerbaijan and Georgia are controlled by the Armenian army. It is not
clear how Armenia and Russia made this division though we often come
across "external borders" of the CIS. In other words, the external
borders are defended by Russia, the internal ones by Armenia. But
Georgia has left the CIS, while the Armenian frontier troops are
still there at the border.
As to the border with Azerbaijan, though officially there is no war,
not the border guards but the Armenian detachments are at the border.
Actually, Russia is defending the "external" borders of CIS which
includes also Azerbaijan. In other words, the Russian border guards do
not perform the function of protecting the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
It can hardly be a function of the Russian base of Armenia which
mostly targets "external enemies", such as NATO as perceived by Russia,
a member of which Turkey is.
So, the Russian military forces cannot defend Armenia from Azerbaijan.
This means that other forces can assume such functions, the OSCE,
for instance. It does not have its own military detachments but it
can delegate the function to NATO.
Armenia has stated more than once that it is categorically against
such intervention because Turkey is a NATO member. There have been
discussions that the peacekeeping force should not be composed of
forces of regional countries.
Perhaps, the OSCE will finally negotiate the mechanisms of
investigation of border incidents. However, for full control, it will
perhaps need mobile forces.
From: A. Papazian