BAIT FOR TOOTHLESS WHALES
Friday, 08 February 2013 09:33
The issue of the Stepanakert airport commissioning has again occupied
the top positions in the information of the mass media. And we can
boldly speak about its internationalization, as it is discussed not
only in the Armenian and Azerbaijani, but also in the foreign press.
The issue of the airport’s restart its appearance at the
international arena only and only to Azerbaijan, which has repeatedly
and artificially actualized it. To be more precise, it politicizes
and even … militarizes it.
As is known, official Baku, which reacts quite nervously to any
positive process taking place in any sphere in the NKR, opposed
the opening of the Stepanakert airport from the outset. Moreover,
representatives of Azerbaijan, including at the highest level,
periodically voiced threats to use force against civil aircrafts
flying to Nagorno-Karabakh.
As a result, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen had to respond to
the hysterical behavior of Azerbaijan by adopting in April 2011 and
July 2012 corresponding statements, which, in particular, noted the
inadmissibility of politicizing the issue. It was also noted that the
co-chairs had received assurances from the parties not to use force
against civilian aircrafts and to resolve the issue exclusively by
diplomatic means.
It would seem that the mediators created the necessary documentary
basis for civilized solution of the hypertrophied-by-Azerbaijan
problem, but no, it was nothing of the kind. The authorities in
Baku did not stop to escalate the tensions on the aviation topic,
continuing to pour threats to shoot down the civilian aircrafts,
which will appear in the sky of Nagorno-Karabakh. The culmination of
the anti-aviation actions of Azerbaijan was the January 18 resolution
of the Azerbaijani government, actually, allowing the Azerbaijani
air forces to shoot down civilian aircrafts. Reasonable people would
fairly call similar behavior of the Azerbaijani authorities savage.
True, CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha called it “a bad
joke” in late January in Yerevan, commenting on the resolution of the
Azerbaijani government. We believe that the CSTO Secretary General was
not joking, as he used to act by common sense, which completely rejects
the possibility of deliberate shooting down of civilian aircrafts. “I
take Azerbaijan as a civilized state, which follows universal norms”,
said Bordyuzha and expressed strong doubt about the readiness of the
Azerbaijani leadership to give a command to attack civilian aircrafts.
However, we dare to state that official Baku doesn’t either joke. Mr.
Bordyuzha’s remark on “a civilized state, which follows universal
norms” is a very strong compliment to Azerbaijan, with its criminal
potential. CSTO Secretary General’s skepticism is understandable,
but he should be reminded that at the end of the 20th century, many
people couldn’t either believe that “civilized” Azerbaijan could have
bloody Sumgait and bloody Baku, where people were killed with the most
savage methods only because they were born Armenians. So the threats
to shoot down civilian planes should hardly be taken as a joke, as
due to its criminal actions Azerbaijan has earned the reputation of
a terrorist state requiring a very serious attention and attitude by
the international community. And all its steps are aimed only at one
thing – not just to hamper the development of the NKR, but finally –
to remove it from the world map.
In this regard, we think a series of important questions occur. Don’t
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen see that by initiating different-level
discussions on the purely humanitarian issue of opening the Stepanakert
airport, Azerbaijan thus replaces both the essence of the Karabakh
conflict settlement and the mediators’ functions, leading them away
from the basic topic of the negotiations?
Why do not the co-chairs strongly condemn the resolution adopted
in Baku and representing gross violation of international and
humanitarian law, which guarantee freedom of movement, regardless
of the recognized or non-recognized status of a state? Why do not
they remind the President of Azerbaijan of the arrangement reached
with him on the non-use of force against civilian aircrafts? And why,
instead of condemning Azerbaijan, some politicians, in particular, a
number of European parliamentarians are merely led by it, considering
the opening of the airport as … an impact on the negotiation process?
The reason is that at the instigation of Baku, a shift in emphasis
and reassessment of moral values took place. The case of killer
Safarov demonstrated to the world the extreme radicalization of
Azerbaijan’s position, which, however, did not result in appropriate
consequences for official Baku. Yes, there were condemning statements
by international organizations and separate states, the European
Parliament even adopted a resolution in this regard, but the matter did
not go beyond words. Meanwhile, the situation demanded not only angry
rhetoric. The palliative measures, as we see, could not reason with
Azerbaijan, which is currently posing at the international arena as
a political outcast ignoring not only the rules of international law,
but also of human ethics. Seeing the spinelessness and toothlessness
of corresponding international structures, Azerbaijan, having stood
the primarily verbal criticism regarding the case of Safarov, refocused
the attention of the international community on the farfetched issue of
the Stepanakert airport. Apparently, the whales of the world politics
ingested successfully the bait thrown by Azerbaijan.
Leonid MARTIROSSIAN Editor-in-Chief of Azat Artsakh newspaper