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WHAT IS IMPERMISSIBLE TO THE OSCE IS PERMISSIBLE TO THE DEFENSE ARMY
Monday, 26 January 2015 15:48
The events having taken place in the conflict zone for the last few
months clearly indicate that Azerbaijan has overshot the mark in its
provocative actions. Daily military reports inform about yet another
violation of the ceasefire by Azerbaijan, the number of which amounted
to almost 1800 over the past week.
The acts of sabotage and firing of the positions of the NKR Defense
Army, which even lead to local clashes with casualties on both sides,
have extremely intensified, especially since the beginning of the
new year of 2015. Moreover, armed incidents and sabotage attacks on
the border with Armenia, initiated by the Azerbaijanis, have also
intensified. Such an aggressive behavior of Azerbaijan confirms once
again that it cynically ignored the calls by international structures
for maintaining the ceasefire. And not only this. The present Baku
regime does not either fulfill its commitments to search the ways
of resolving the Karabakh conflict, based on the three fundamental
principles proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, one of which
requires non-use of force.
We can suppose several reasons why the Azerbaijani authorities behave
in this way, exposing the peace and stability in the region to great
risk. It is known that the persistent attempts of official Baku to
solve the Karabakh issue in its own way do not bring the expected
results, so it uses the escalation of the situation in the conflict
zone as a way of military pressure on Armenia and the NKR, as well
as the international community. Perhaps escalating the situation,
Azerbaijan, which has repeatedly declared for the change of the
current format of negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE, thus
tries to discredit the Minsk Group, which is increasingly criticized
and accused of inefficiency by official Baku. It is also possible
that the escalation of tensions in the conflict zone by Azerbaijan
is conditioned by the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, prompting the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem to resort to any
means to distract the attention of the international community from
this important event and to diminish its significance.
Surely, there may be other versions explaining the radicalization of
the behavior of the Azerbaijani military-political leadership. But,
now I would like to talk about another thing. While the position of
the criminal authorities of Azerbaijan, undermining the efforts of
the mediators on finding mutually acceptable solutions, yet can be
explained, the position of international organizations, and first of
all the OSCE Minsk Group, remains unexplainable. It is obvious that in
the situation that Azerbaijan oversteps the bounds of all reasonable
and keeps grossly violating the ceasefire, becoming responsible
for the deaths of dozens of people, the Minsk Group simply must say
its weighty word and use efficient mechanisms of influence on and
containment of the aggressor. Alas, we haven't seen any adequate
steps by the mediators yet, which, surely, encourages official Baku
for new dangerous adventures.
We have repeatedly heard from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen that
they do not have a corresponding mandate for taking the necessary
sanctions against the violator of the ceasefire. Moreover, no mechanism
for investigating the incidents on the parties' contact-line is created
so far. By the way, it is also due to the fault of Azerbaijan, which
has blocked the adoption of such a resolution. To date, the only
means of controlling the situation at the contact-line is actually
the monitoring regularly conducted by the OSCE mission, but it should
be admitted that the monitoring has also lost its efficiency. It is
confirmed by the halted monitoring on January 14, when the Azerbaijani
side fired the section of its conduct. But, on the existing "bad
tradition", the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group, even under the
obvious fault of Azerbaijan, made all the parties responsible for
the incident. It is needless to note that such a position, or more
precisely - its absence, strikes the reputation of the proper OSCE
mediation institution.
In this context, it is impossible to ignore the blatant fact of
the cease-fire violation - the incident with the NKR Defense Army
helicopter downed in November. As already noted, in such situations,
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs refer to the lack of a mechanism for
investigating the incidents. But in Ukraine, where the recent shelling
of a passenger bus killed people, it was the OSCE that took up the
investigation of the tragedy. In other words, if the criminal actions
of Azerbaijan are not given the proper political-legal assessment
by international organizations, if Baku is not made responsible and
isn't punished for the gross violations of the ceasefire, which lead
the entire region to the brink of a new war, all the efforts of the
OSCE Minsk Group will come to naught and our region will resemble a
powder keg for a long time.
And as long as the international mechanisms of deterring the
high-handed aggressor do not work, effective factors of curbing
militaristic Azerbaijan will continue to be the armed forces of Armenia
and the NKR, which forced Azerbaijan to peace in 1994 and which are,
actually, implementing a the peacekeeping mission. In the conditions
when the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs display impermissible passivity,
the armies of both Armenian Republics are left with no choice but
to continue to take tough measures to force Azerbaijan to peace,
which the peoples of the region need so much.
Leonid MARTIROSSIAN Editor-in-Chief of Azat Artsakh newspaper
http://artsakhtert.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1680: what-is-impermissible-to-the-osce-is-permissible-to-the-defense-army&catid=3:all&Itemid=4
Monday, 26 January 2015 15:48
The events having taken place in the conflict zone for the last few
months clearly indicate that Azerbaijan has overshot the mark in its
provocative actions. Daily military reports inform about yet another
violation of the ceasefire by Azerbaijan, the number of which amounted
to almost 1800 over the past week.
The acts of sabotage and firing of the positions of the NKR Defense
Army, which even lead to local clashes with casualties on both sides,
have extremely intensified, especially since the beginning of the
new year of 2015. Moreover, armed incidents and sabotage attacks on
the border with Armenia, initiated by the Azerbaijanis, have also
intensified. Such an aggressive behavior of Azerbaijan confirms once
again that it cynically ignored the calls by international structures
for maintaining the ceasefire. And not only this. The present Baku
regime does not either fulfill its commitments to search the ways
of resolving the Karabakh conflict, based on the three fundamental
principles proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, one of which
requires non-use of force.
We can suppose several reasons why the Azerbaijani authorities behave
in this way, exposing the peace and stability in the region to great
risk. It is known that the persistent attempts of official Baku to
solve the Karabakh issue in its own way do not bring the expected
results, so it uses the escalation of the situation in the conflict
zone as a way of military pressure on Armenia and the NKR, as well
as the international community. Perhaps escalating the situation,
Azerbaijan, which has repeatedly declared for the change of the
current format of negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE, thus
tries to discredit the Minsk Group, which is increasingly criticized
and accused of inefficiency by official Baku. It is also possible
that the escalation of tensions in the conflict zone by Azerbaijan
is conditioned by the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, prompting the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem to resort to any
means to distract the attention of the international community from
this important event and to diminish its significance.
Surely, there may be other versions explaining the radicalization of
the behavior of the Azerbaijani military-political leadership. But,
now I would like to talk about another thing. While the position of
the criminal authorities of Azerbaijan, undermining the efforts of
the mediators on finding mutually acceptable solutions, yet can be
explained, the position of international organizations, and first of
all the OSCE Minsk Group, remains unexplainable. It is obvious that in
the situation that Azerbaijan oversteps the bounds of all reasonable
and keeps grossly violating the ceasefire, becoming responsible
for the deaths of dozens of people, the Minsk Group simply must say
its weighty word and use efficient mechanisms of influence on and
containment of the aggressor. Alas, we haven't seen any adequate
steps by the mediators yet, which, surely, encourages official Baku
for new dangerous adventures.
We have repeatedly heard from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen that
they do not have a corresponding mandate for taking the necessary
sanctions against the violator of the ceasefire. Moreover, no mechanism
for investigating the incidents on the parties' contact-line is created
so far. By the way, it is also due to the fault of Azerbaijan, which
has blocked the adoption of such a resolution. To date, the only
means of controlling the situation at the contact-line is actually
the monitoring regularly conducted by the OSCE mission, but it should
be admitted that the monitoring has also lost its efficiency. It is
confirmed by the halted monitoring on January 14, when the Azerbaijani
side fired the section of its conduct. But, on the existing "bad
tradition", the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group, even under the
obvious fault of Azerbaijan, made all the parties responsible for
the incident. It is needless to note that such a position, or more
precisely - its absence, strikes the reputation of the proper OSCE
mediation institution.
In this context, it is impossible to ignore the blatant fact of
the cease-fire violation - the incident with the NKR Defense Army
helicopter downed in November. As already noted, in such situations,
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs refer to the lack of a mechanism for
investigating the incidents. But in Ukraine, where the recent shelling
of a passenger bus killed people, it was the OSCE that took up the
investigation of the tragedy. In other words, if the criminal actions
of Azerbaijan are not given the proper political-legal assessment
by international organizations, if Baku is not made responsible and
isn't punished for the gross violations of the ceasefire, which lead
the entire region to the brink of a new war, all the efforts of the
OSCE Minsk Group will come to naught and our region will resemble a
powder keg for a long time.
And as long as the international mechanisms of deterring the
high-handed aggressor do not work, effective factors of curbing
militaristic Azerbaijan will continue to be the armed forces of Armenia
and the NKR, which forced Azerbaijan to peace in 1994 and which are,
actually, implementing a the peacekeeping mission. In the conditions
when the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs display impermissible passivity,
the armies of both Armenian Republics are left with no choice but
to continue to take tough measures to force Azerbaijan to peace,
which the peoples of the region need so much.
Leonid MARTIROSSIAN Editor-in-Chief of Azat Artsakh newspaper
http://artsakhtert.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1680: what-is-impermissible-to-the-osce-is-permissible-to-the-defense-army&catid=3:all&Itemid=4