SERGEY MARKEDONOV: KARABAKH IS A REAL SIDE OF CONFLICT
ARKA News Agency
Sept 1 2005
MOSCOW, September1. /ARKA/. Karabakh is a real side of the conflict
regardless of whether Azerbaijan admits this or not, ARKA News
Agency’s correspondent reports from Moscow quoting Sergey Markedonov,
Chief of Political and Military Analysis Institute’s Department for
International Relations, as saying at his meeting with journalists.
“This fact admission absolutely doesn’t mean that Baku must recognize
Karabakh as a subject of international law or automatically give
up Karabakh”, Markedonov said. In his opinion, the key problem in
Karabakh conflict settlement is to restore the sides’ trust toward
each other, and neither Russia nor Turkey and OSCE Minsk Group can
do it. Markedonov thinks some contacts are needed between the two
conflicting sides as well as discussion of some new models, because
today package and stage-by-stage scheme of the conflict settlement
collided “as two sheep on a bridge” and no move is seen. The Russian
expert is bilateral activity should be more intensive the sides
should stop waiting a miracle from the Minsk Group. The Group can
work out any plans, but if these plans are not accepted they will
produce little effect, Markedonov said. In his opinion, both sides
should make some move to give the start to this conflict settlement.
“Maybe third, fifth, twenty fifth way should be found, as present
schemes are uncompromising”, the political analyst said. In his words,
compromise means mutual concessions but not “the demand to accept my
truth”. “This is dictatorship, not compromise”, he said.
Speaking about possibility of some new initiatives, Markedonov said
clear Caucasian strategy is needed for that, but it is still missing.
“There is no acknowledgement of the idea that either Armenia or
Azerbaijan needs Russia”, Markedonov said. In his words, Armenia is
traditional ally to Russia and in Azerbaijan, pro-Russian sentiments
are strong and the country has common borders with Russia and Russia
interested in normal relations wit Azerbaijan. Taking into account the
fact that there are powerful Armenian and Azerbaijani communities in
Russia, the country can establish contacts between the two communities’
representatives. This experience can be applied also to Armenian-Azeri
relations in South Caucasus. He sees the problem in “the very narrow
corridor of the U.S. Russia and OSCE Minsk Group proposals. “We
understand that neither package nor stage-by-stage package is perfect
and it is very difficult to propose something new. But the problem is
need attention”, Markedonnov said. “I’d like to put special emphasis on
Diaspora. This is a very rich resource regarding all aspects. Taking
into consideration Armenian and Azerbaijani offshore communities’
political and financial influence on these countries, this can be used
as resource for not formal reconciliation”, Markedonov said. M.V. -0–