WILL REFERENDUM DECIDE KARABAKH’S FATE?
Azg/arm
12 Jan 05
Oskanian And Mammediarov Resume Bilateral Meetings
The regular meeting of RA and Azeri foreign ministers will be held
with the participation of f the OSCE Minsk group mediators in Prague,
on January 10. Vartan Oskanian said in the interview to Interfax
agency before departing to Prague that “the negotiations of this year
will qualitatively differ from the first stage of the Prague process.”
“At present we will touch upon certain issues and details, while in
the course of the first stage of the Prague process we discussed
general principles. The more we deepen in details the more the
negotiations get complicated. When we begin work with details we
should be ready to make mutual concessions,” Oskanian said, expressing
hope that in 2005 “we will be able to fix a progress in the Nagorno
Karabakh issue.”
The Associated Press informed that few days ago Azeri President said
in the sitting of the security council that the settlement of Nagorno
Karabakh conflict enters “a new, positive stage”. “Certainly, I don’t
mean that the conflict is settled. The negotiations are still on and
we spare no efforts to make them go in the way beneficial for us,”
Ilham Aliyev said, adding that the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh has
entered “a new stage.”
On his turn, Yuri Merzliakov, Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk group
told the Azeri press that Armenia agreed to make some concessions in
the course of the Prague negotiations. “Now, it is Azerbaijan’s turn,”
Merzliakovsaid.
During the December 22 press conference, 2004, Oskanian advised the
journalists to pay attention to the article published in the French Le
Figaro. According to him, the article reflects “today’s general
trends in the Nagorno Karabakh issue.” Pierre Lelouche, head of the
NATO parliamentary Assembly, and Anna Palacio, former Spanish foreign
minister, the authors of the article, visited Nagorno Karabakh in
autumn and expressed the opinion that “Armenia should have the
temporal control of Nagorno Karabakh who’s further fate will bedecided
though a referendum in 5 or 10 years.”
According to daily Azg’s information, it is not excluded that Armenia
and Azerbaijan will agree an agreement on Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement, according to which, the Karabakh forces should quit
several Azeri territories under their control, while Baku will agree
to hand the control of Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia under the condition
that in 5 or 10 years the status of NKR will be decided through a
referendum.
By the way, in the course of the December 22 press conference,
Oskanian said that Yerevan will be able to ratify the right of
Karabakh people for self-determination and achieve its international
recognition, on the other hand, he added that the realization of the
right of Karabakh’s self-determination can be indirect from the aspect
of the time.
Last year, in the course of one of his public speeches, RA President
Robert Kocharian drew the attention to the trends of the settlement of
the current conflicts in the other corners of the world, particularly,
he pointed out the crisis in the South Sudan, where interesting
developments take place.
A historical event took place in Kenya on January 9, with the
participation of Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, and Colin
Powell, the US State Secretary, as well as the leaders of some African
countries. The South and North authorities of Sudan have signed an
agreement, according to which the status of the unrecognized Blue Nile
and Nuba Mountain’s Country will be decided in six years through a
nation-wide referendum.
It’s worth mentioning that the international community led by the US
has chosen the referendum as a settlement of the conflicts. The same
happened in 2004, when two simultaneous referendums were held in
Cyprus among the Greek and the Turkish communities of the island. It
is not excluded that the fate of Kosovo will also be decided though a
referendum.
As for Sudan, it is worth mentioning that the sides in conflict came
to agreement in the following issue. The Southern part of the country
will be announced an autonomy and be governed according to the
principles of autonomy from the July of 2005.While in six years the
country will decide through referendum whether it stays in the
structure of Sudan or it becomes an independent state. John Garange,
leader of the separatists for many years, will become the first rime
minister of Sudan. The oil profits of Sudan that amount to $ 4 billion
annually will be equally divided between the Northern central
government and the Southern autonomy in the course of the coming six
years.
BBC states that if the referendum is held tomorrow, the South will
vote for its independence. John Garange, who signed a cease-fire with
the authorities of Sudan two years ago, is for a united state of Sudan
that has two centers.
By the way, Sudan and Azerbaijan a number of things in common. The
most important is that both Baku and Khartoum have turned for help to
Osama bin Laden, World’s terrorist N1, to settle the Nagorno Karabakh
and South Sudan conflicts, relevantly. The US exerted punishment
measures on Sudan for giving shelter to bin Laden years ago. But
Heydar Aliyev felt the danger in time and agreed to cooperate with the
US in its anti-terrorist combat.
The conflict burst out in Sudan in 1983, when Khartoum authorities
tried to impose the rules of Islamic law on the population of the
Southern part of the country that don’t speak Arabic. About 2 million
people died in thearmed conflict that lasted for 20 years.
It’s worth mentioning, that the humanitarian crisis that is still on
in Darfur, the Western part of Sudan, should not be confused with the
conflictbetween the South and the North of the country. Darfur
conflict began in 2003, when the rebels of this region began attacking
the authorities, condemning them in racism. About 70 thousand blacks
died in Darfur in two years and 2 million quitted their homes. The US
characterizes Darfur crisis as a genocide.
By Tatoul Hakobian