CLINTON'S WORDS PROVE PREVIOUS APPROACHES ON KARABAKH WERE UNREALISTIC
news.am
June 06, 2012 | 23:58
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the South Caucasus
region stirred up the expert circles of the countries in the
region, became the reason for a variety of assessments, opinions
and commentaries, often completely contradicting each other. The
hottest topic of discussion is related to Clinton's announcement
that the parties of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict 'will be proposed
new approaches'.
Chairman of the Public Council for Foreign Policy and Security
of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), Masis Mailyan commented on
Clinton's visit and the 'new approaches' in the interview to Armenian
News-NEWS.am.
Before the visit some experts announced that the visit has a more
formal than substantive character and that the Karabakh conflict will
only briefly be touched upon. However, Clinton announced about some
'new' approaches will be presented. How serious should those words
be taken?
The skepticism of the experts was due to the fact that the negotiations
entered a rather passive stage. This is because of electoral periods
in the mediators' as well as the conflicting countries. As for
the Secretary's words about new approaches on the settlement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the announcement itself proves that
the previous approaches, including the Madrid principles and their
elements, were not realistic.
What can the new approaches be? Is it possible to completely cross
over the outcome of the negotiations that lasted nearly 20 years?
During the last 20 years the mediator countries have made many
proposals on the settlement of the conflict. However, none of those
proposals was contemporaneously accepted by all conflict parties. OSCE
Minsk Group uses an outdated methodology of conflict resolutions,
it does not reflect modern approaches of international law and
the realities of the precedents in international relations. There
is a completely new situation, which began to take shape after the
recognition of Kosovo under the patronage of the majority of Western
countries, as well as the subsequent recognition of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia by Russia. It is clear that new approaches must be based
on new realities and must lead the people of the region to peaceful
coexist and not to fight.
Can these new hypothetical approaches cause disagreement to the NKR
authorities, and if so, what could it lead to?
Based on previous experience, we can conclude that today's NKR
authorities are unlikely to give a clear and unambiguous assessment
of possible new approaches. But the expert community, civil society
and the individual political parties of Artsakh, of course, will
express their views. If the new approaches are against the interests
of Armenia and NKR then they shall be refused. Let us hope that during
the development of the new approaches about which Clinton mentioned,
the mistakes of the last 20 years will be taken into consideration.
As Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier, during her regional visit
to the South Caucasus region US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had
announced that 'new approaches will be presented to the conflicting
parties on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict'.
news.am
June 06, 2012 | 23:58
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the South Caucasus
region stirred up the expert circles of the countries in the
region, became the reason for a variety of assessments, opinions
and commentaries, often completely contradicting each other. The
hottest topic of discussion is related to Clinton's announcement
that the parties of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict 'will be proposed
new approaches'.
Chairman of the Public Council for Foreign Policy and Security
of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), Masis Mailyan commented on
Clinton's visit and the 'new approaches' in the interview to Armenian
News-NEWS.am.
Before the visit some experts announced that the visit has a more
formal than substantive character and that the Karabakh conflict will
only briefly be touched upon. However, Clinton announced about some
'new' approaches will be presented. How serious should those words
be taken?
The skepticism of the experts was due to the fact that the negotiations
entered a rather passive stage. This is because of electoral periods
in the mediators' as well as the conflicting countries. As for
the Secretary's words about new approaches on the settlement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the announcement itself proves that
the previous approaches, including the Madrid principles and their
elements, were not realistic.
What can the new approaches be? Is it possible to completely cross
over the outcome of the negotiations that lasted nearly 20 years?
During the last 20 years the mediator countries have made many
proposals on the settlement of the conflict. However, none of those
proposals was contemporaneously accepted by all conflict parties. OSCE
Minsk Group uses an outdated methodology of conflict resolutions,
it does not reflect modern approaches of international law and
the realities of the precedents in international relations. There
is a completely new situation, which began to take shape after the
recognition of Kosovo under the patronage of the majority of Western
countries, as well as the subsequent recognition of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia by Russia. It is clear that new approaches must be based
on new realities and must lead the people of the region to peaceful
coexist and not to fight.
Can these new hypothetical approaches cause disagreement to the NKR
authorities, and if so, what could it lead to?
Based on previous experience, we can conclude that today's NKR
authorities are unlikely to give a clear and unambiguous assessment
of possible new approaches. But the expert community, civil society
and the individual political parties of Artsakh, of course, will
express their views. If the new approaches are against the interests
of Armenia and NKR then they shall be refused. Let us hope that during
the development of the new approaches about which Clinton mentioned,
the mistakes of the last 20 years will be taken into consideration.
As Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier, during her regional visit
to the South Caucasus region US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had
announced that 'new approaches will be presented to the conflicting
parties on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict'.