Minsk Group Hardly Enjoys Any Confidence In Azerbaijan – Poll

MINSK GROUP HARDLY ENJOYS ANY CONFIDENCE IN AZERBAIJAN – POLL

Interfax News Agency
May 2 2008
Russia

The Minsk Group, an Organization for Security and Cooperation body
mediating in the Azeri-Armenian conflict over the disputed Azeri
Armenians-speaking enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, hardly enjoys any
public confidence in Azerbaijan, pollsters said on Friday.

"According to the results of the poll, the population of Azerbaijan
is extremely dissatisfied with the Minsk Group – 66% of respondents
categorically deny it confidence and another 15% question its
objectivity, while 19% were undecided," Rizvan Abbasov, head of the
Rey Monitoring Center told a news conference in reference to a survey
by Rey.

"In speaking about what kind of relationship Azerbaijan should have
with the Minsk Group of the OSCE in the future, only 7% of those
questioned were in favor of leaving everything the way it is because
‘the interchange of summands does not affect the sum,’" Abbasov said.

"Twenty-nine percent were undecided."

Twenty-seven percent of those questioned were in favor of changing
the format of Nagorno-Karabakh talks by ditching the Minsk Group, 24%
would welcome the replacement of the countries co-heading the Group,
and 12% thought "something needs to be done in any case because the
Minsk Group is useless," Abbasov said.

"In a word, the poll by the Rey Monitoring Center provides evidence
that 81% of Azerbaijan’s adult population negatively assesses the
performance of the Minsk Group of the OSCE, while 63% believe that
it fails to cope with its mission and that one should look for a
replacement for it. Sixty-seven percent of respondents believe the
situation has remained unchanged, and in the opinion of 19% it has
got worse – 13% were undecided, – in other words, the population is
dissatisfied with the way this serious and painful problem is being
dealt with," Abbasov said.

Asked which conflict settlement formula they would welcome, 46%
advocated going back to Nagorno-Karabakh’s Soviet-era status as a semi-
autonomous region of Azerbaijan, 30% were against any special status
for the enclave, and 16% were in favor of vast autonomy for it.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents would prefer the use of armed
force and 65% talks as the means of resolving the conflict.

Rey questioned 1,300 people in the poll, carried out on April 2-5.