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WILL NAGORNO-KARABAKH SETTLEMENT PASS THROUGH CAMP DAVID?
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
July 11 2014
11 July 2014, 10:51 (GMT+05:00)
By Claude Salhani
Senior editor of the English service of Trend Agency
Outside Caspian-Caucasus region, just a few people may have ever
heard of Nagorno-Karabakh region which has been the center of a
dispute over the last three decades.
The Minsk Group was set up with the aim of resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which evolved after Armenia's unfair
territorial claims towards its neighbor. Armenia occupied over
20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory,
including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. Comprised of
United States, Russia, and France the group has not yet managed to
produce any progress.
The Minsk Group was set up with the aim of resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which evolved after Armenian . Comprised
of United States, Russia, and France the group has not yet managed
to produce any progress.
Therefore, it's now the time to move forward and look beyond Minsk.
Where does the road beyond Minsk lead or rather, where should it lead?
The answer is to Camp David, the US presidential retreat in Maryland,
just outside the District of Columbia.
US President Barak Obama should take the lead from former Democrat
President, Jimmy Carter, who invited Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
and Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin to discuss their dispute
at the camp. Carter even sent back the helicopters telling the two
leaders that they could not leave the highly guarded retreat until
they resolved the crisis.
The Camp David accord was eventually reached and peace was signed
between Egypt and Israel. But Carter was unable to draw other Arab
countries into a peace bond with Israel particularly Syria and the
Palestinians. As a result, the situation in the region remains tense
even today. Since then, there have been a number of wars between Israel
and its Arab neighbors. Each time, each side proclaimed victory but
at the end, this was violence which was raging on.
In 1982, Israel launched an operation called "Peace for Galilee."
Israel invaded Lebanon and forced the Palestine Liberation Organization
out of Lebanon and into exile in Arab countries. The war backfired
and just a few years later the PLO was indeed no longer sitting on
Israel's northern border, but the Palestinian hierarchy found its way
into the West Bank, setting itself up in Ramallah, just a 10 minutes
drive from Jerusalem, or a few seconds as the mortar shell flies. The
Lebanon War paved the way for establishment of the Hezbollah Movement.
What we learned from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was that a
conflict becomes more complicated with time. Unresolved conflicts have
the tendency to produce more tense situations and more complicated
problems. So, it is in the national interest of both the United States
and Russia - who supports Armenia - to convince the Azerbaijanis and
Armenians to settle this issue once and for all.
Allowing the flames of injustice to continue to burn will at some
point lead to a far deadlier situation. As we have seen in other
unresolved conflicts, there is never a shortage of people who are
willing to give up their lives for the sake of their country or cause.
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
July 11 2014
11 July 2014, 10:51 (GMT+05:00)
By Claude Salhani
Senior editor of the English service of Trend Agency
Outside Caspian-Caucasus region, just a few people may have ever
heard of Nagorno-Karabakh region which has been the center of a
dispute over the last three decades.
The Minsk Group was set up with the aim of resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which evolved after Armenia's unfair
territorial claims towards its neighbor. Armenia occupied over
20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory,
including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. Comprised of
United States, Russia, and France the group has not yet managed to
produce any progress.
The Minsk Group was set up with the aim of resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which evolved after Armenian . Comprised
of United States, Russia, and France the group has not yet managed
to produce any progress.
Therefore, it's now the time to move forward and look beyond Minsk.
Where does the road beyond Minsk lead or rather, where should it lead?
The answer is to Camp David, the US presidential retreat in Maryland,
just outside the District of Columbia.
US President Barak Obama should take the lead from former Democrat
President, Jimmy Carter, who invited Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
and Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin to discuss their dispute
at the camp. Carter even sent back the helicopters telling the two
leaders that they could not leave the highly guarded retreat until
they resolved the crisis.
The Camp David accord was eventually reached and peace was signed
between Egypt and Israel. But Carter was unable to draw other Arab
countries into a peace bond with Israel particularly Syria and the
Palestinians. As a result, the situation in the region remains tense
even today. Since then, there have been a number of wars between Israel
and its Arab neighbors. Each time, each side proclaimed victory but
at the end, this was violence which was raging on.
In 1982, Israel launched an operation called "Peace for Galilee."
Israel invaded Lebanon and forced the Palestine Liberation Organization
out of Lebanon and into exile in Arab countries. The war backfired
and just a few years later the PLO was indeed no longer sitting on
Israel's northern border, but the Palestinian hierarchy found its way
into the West Bank, setting itself up in Ramallah, just a 10 minutes
drive from Jerusalem, or a few seconds as the mortar shell flies. The
Lebanon War paved the way for establishment of the Hezbollah Movement.
What we learned from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was that a
conflict becomes more complicated with time. Unresolved conflicts have
the tendency to produce more tense situations and more complicated
problems. So, it is in the national interest of both the United States
and Russia - who supports Armenia - to convince the Azerbaijanis and
Armenians to settle this issue once and for all.
Allowing the flames of injustice to continue to burn will at some
point lead to a far deadlier situation. As we have seen in other
unresolved conflicts, there is never a shortage of people who are
willing to give up their lives for the sake of their country or cause.