DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
December 28, 2007 Friday
FREIZER: ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN PREPARE FOR A WAR
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP PREDICTS A WAR BETWEEN ARMENIA AND
AZERBAIJAN; Will it be a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan again?
Sabina Freizer, Directress of European Programs of the International
Crisis Group, told The Boston Globe that full fledged
Azerbaijani-Armenian hostilities were in the near future now.
"The international community is always late to respond to
hostilities," Freizer said. "Is it possible to stop a war before it
begins? We can try it in Nagorno-Karabakh over which Armenia and
Azerbaijan are about to start fighting." Freizer is convinced that it
is really possible to prevent this outbreak of hostilities.
As far as Freizer is concerned, Armenia and Azerbaijan delay crisis
resolution because "Armenia views every day of occupation as an
opportunity to solidify its position" while Azerbaijan needs time to
strengthen its army by investing oil revenues into armaments and
seize Nagorno-Karabakh by sheer strength of arms. Armenia Today
quotes Freizer as saying that the solution to the problem requires
the withdrawal of Karabakh troops from the occupied territories and
definition of its status by a referendum.
Armenian Foreign Minister, Vardan Oskanjan, in the meantime does not
rule out the possibility that the conflict will be settled before the
presidential election in Armenia. "Being an optimist, I think it a
wish of the people to see the involved parties reach an understanding
on the principles of settlement at least," he said on December 18.
"Once that is done, it will be up to us to squeeze them all into a
peace treaty 30 or 50 pages long."
Sahim Babayev, human rights activist and Chairman of the Gyandzh
Division of the Helsinki Civil Assembly of Azerbaijan, claims that
80% of the Azerbaijanis reject the idea of a war.
"Ordinary people want peace, but that requires that we change our
views on who the enemy is," he said at a press conference in Yerevan,
Armenia, on December 17. "It’s time we remembered that we are
neighbors."
Source: Kavkazsky Uzel, December 25, 2007, EV
Translated by A. Ignatkin