Azeri opposition paper points to government’s foreign policy failures
Azadliq, Baku
9 Dec 04
Text of Xayal Sahinoglu report by Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq on 29
December headlined “Ilham Aliyev’s UN plan ends in a fiasco” and
subheaded “Moreover, it emerged that the OSCE does not regard Karabakh
as Azerbaijan’s land” and “What other catastrophes is this
good-for-nothing government going to put us through?”
The foreign policy of every state is the continuation of its domestic
policy. In other words, the diplomatic success of the ruling
political force directly depends on its domestic policy. The
international attitude to the current regime in Azerbaijan is negative
because it is crudely violating human rights and restricting freedom
of speech in the country. [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev, who is
guided solely by his personal interests in the country’s foreign, as
well as domestic policy, recently confirmed once again that he has no
diplomatic capabilities to resolve the Karabakh problem, which is
considered to be the most important problem of our people. The
well-known statement by the Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
Group, Yuriy Merzlyakov, ruined the propaganda campaign that the
authorities have been waging for months.
In fact, the government’s plan to raise the Karabakh conflict with the
UN failed from the beginning. The first failure the government faced
in this direction was that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen backed
Armenia’s stance when the issue was put on the agenda. Like Armenia,
the OSCE co-chairmen were against discussing the issue at the
UN. Although it is possible to blame the OSCE for taking a biased
position on this issue. But it should also be taken into account that
the reaction of the aforesaid authoritative entity stems from the
good-for-nothing foreign policy of the authorities. The OSCE Minsk
Group realizes that it is easier to speak to the Aliyevs in the
language of pressure because they have come to power not by the will
of the people, but through election fraud. It means that the ruling
force in Azerbaijan is ready to make any concession to protect their
political power.
Another setback the government suffered in its UN plan was that nobody
but representatives of Islamic states voted for the Karabakh issue
when it was put on the UN agenda. And this was due to the unfavourable
diplomatic situation with limited capabilities to manoeuvre that
Azerbaijan has plunged into under the Aliyevs. The UN’s attitude to
the Karabakh problem undoubtedly implies that the international
community actually questions Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. At
the same time, this attitude also confirmed that the authorities’
long-lasting propaganda campaign that our country will increase the
number of its allies in the international arena as a result of its
“oil policy” is nothing but a lie.
Finally, the last and maybe tragic setback Azerbaijan suffered in the
government’s UN plan is that the OSCE has set a condition that it will
monitor the settlement of Armenians in the occupied [Azerbaijani]
territories only in the seven occupied districts around Nagornyy
Karabakh. Merzlyakov said that official Baku promised not to raise the
problem with the UN in return for the OSCE’s consent to conduct this
monitoring. But as can be seen, the Ilham Aliyev government did not
have enough strength to have Nagornyy Karabakh and Lacin [District of
Azerbaijan] included in the monitoring in exchange for giving up its
position. Although [Azerbaijani] Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
had earlier stated that the Armenians are settling mainly in
Lacin. This setback of the Aliyev government may be regarded as tragic
also because one can draw the conclusion that the OSCE does not regard
Karabakh as Azerbaijan’s territory.