 |
OSCE co-chair sees risk of clash in Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev met in Russia on Friday in a Moscow-brokered attempt to solve one of the most bitter disputes in the region, which is a direct result of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
While the Azerbaijani side said talks in Moscow were unproductive, the Armenian side hailed them as “constructive.” Armenian state television, meanwhile, reported that the two leaders plan to meet again in October. Earlier this month, the international mediators in the Nagorno-Karabakh talks -- Russia, France and the United States -- issued a special statement at a G-8 summit in Italy urging all sides to resolve the issue.
Bernard Fassier of France, one of the three co-chairpersons of the OSCE Minsk Group, speaking with Today's Zaman, underlined that their primary goal was maintaining a “rapprochement” between the two sides. An eventual decision concerning the final status of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute could be made afterwards, Fassier said.
With each passing year, the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute is becoming more difficult, Fassier told Today's Zaman.
“I very much hope that a war does not occur,” Fassier continued, stressing that last year's clashes between the two countries, in which 30 people were killed, prove there is still a risk of war.
In addition, incidents in March involving the use of guns and mortars brought the two countries to the brink of war, he said, adding: “Thank God we were able to stop the escalation of violence. If not, a new war might have erupted.”
Noting that the OSCE mediation process has been under way for 15 years, Fassier mentioned “grudges” between Armenians and Azerbaijanis and the use of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue by both countries' politicians as a tool for domestic policy as the two main reasons behind the lengthiness of the process.
“Maintaining national unity by showing a neighbor as the enemy has always been easy. I believe that the issue would have been resolved a long time ago if both sides used this issue less in their domestic policies and instead had shown greater political courage,” Fassier added.
No place for Turkey's mediation
During the interview, Fassier also touched upon suggestions about whether Turkey would play a role in the Nagorno-Karabakh resolution process.
Turkey, in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, closed its border and severed diplomatic ties with Armenia in 1993. Ankara and Yerevan, however, are now in talks to normalize relations and have been holding closed-door meetings to discuss the matter. Azerbaijan, Turkey's regional and ethnic ally and a key energy supplier, has expressed concern over the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, fearing it would lose key leverage in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
Ankara says the Turkish-Armenian and Azerbaijani-Armenian processes are separate, although progress on one will positively affect the other.
Recalling that Azerbaijan and Turkey consider themselves “one nation, two states,” Fassier ruled out the possibility of Turkey's mediation in the process, indicating that Turkey was actually a party in the issue.
“Turkey's mediation in this process is not possible. Common sense demands this,” he said, while reiterating that the Nagorno-Karabakh process and the normalization efforts between Ankara and Yerevan should be considered two independent processes. Fassier, nonetheless, called the two issues “two processes within the same regional area” and admitted that any progress in one of the two processes might have a “positive and useful” impact on the other process.
The Nagorno-Karabakh issue has sometimes been used in domestic policy in Turkey, and linking the Turkish-Armenian and Azerbaijani-Armenian processes might lead to no resolution for either of the problems, he also warned.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| The modern ‘Great Game’: women’s role and status | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
| KATHY HAMILTON |  |
||
| Random acts of violence | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| Adding insult to injury in Uludere | |||
| NICOLE POPE |  |
||
| Shifting responsibility | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| ‘Errorism’ | |||
| ORHAN MİROĞLU |  |
||
| ‘Strategic vision’ | |||
| ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ |  |
||
| Turkey through Amnesty International’s eyes | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
