30 January 2004 15:49
Azeri politicians differ about EU`s Karabakh settlement plan
Azerbaijani opposition politicians have said that only the full liberation of all the occupies territories of
Azerbaijan can be regarded as success in the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem. Commenting on a recent EU
proposal to restore the railway link with Armenia in return for five of Azerbaijan's occupied districts, one of
them said that the EU plan "will lead to a scenario under which we will never get Nagornyy Karabakh" because
Azerbaijan will get only the territories outside Karabakh. Another opposition politician said that if the communications
are restored, Azerbaijan will lose one of its most serious means of influence on Armenia as the opening of the railway
means that Armenia will uninterruptedly receive Russia's help, including military aid. In turn, an official of the
presidential administration pointed out that the government's goal is to completely liberate all the Azerbaijani
territories and this position remains unchanged. The following is an excerpt from R. Tofiqoglu report by Azerbaijani
newspaper Ekho on 30 January headlined "Azerbaijan is ready for the EU's Karabakh plan" and subheaded
"The opposition issues a warning". Subheadings have been inserted editorially:
The suggestion of a member of the European Parliament to restore the railway link between Azerbaijan and Armenia on
the condition that Armenia pulls out of five of Azerbaijan's occupied districts is regarded as acceptable,
Azerbaijani Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov told the European Commission's ambassador to Azerbaijan, Anthonius de Vries,
at a meeting yesterday (Trend news agency).
[Passage omitted: Reported details of the meeting]
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov also told journalists yesterday that Baku supported the EU proposal
to resume the railway link with Armenia if the Armenian troops pull out of five of Azerbaijan's occupied
districts.
[Passage omitted: Reported details]
These statements can demonstrate a change in Baku's official position on the settlement of the
Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict. It is known that under [Azerbaijani ex-President] Heydar Aliyev, Azimov was the
president's special envoy for the talks on settling the Nagornyy Karabakh problem.
Azerbaijan's position is unchangeable
The head of the foreign relations department of the Azerbaijani Presidential Executive Staff, Novruz Mammadov, told
Ekho yesterday that he "does not believe that this is against Azerbaijan's position on the settlement of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh".
"This idea is no news either. Since the end of the 1990s, the EU has proposed this very scenario to help settle
the conflict through cooperation. It can be implemented through the liberation of five of our districts along the
Iranian border and through the restoration of the railway to Naxcivan [Azerbaijani exclave] and so on. I think that this
could be in harmony with our understanding of the stage-by-stage settlement to this conflict. But this does not mean
that the settlement ends at this stage. No, it does not. This could be the first stage that would help Armenia lift its
isolation, while Azerbaijan will get an opportunity to restore the liberated districts. In addition, these moves can
guarantee trust between the sides. In principle, our main goal - to completely liberate all the occupied territories -
remains in force, and this position is unchangeable," Mammadov said.
Only the full liberation of all occupied lands can be regarded as success
The co-chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, Araz Alizada, thinks that Azerbaijan's consent
with the EU settlement plan "will lead to a scenario under which we will never get Nagornyy Karabakh".
"They will return Karabakh's lower part [outside Nagornyy Karabakh], and we will never see its mountainous
part [Nagornyy Karabakh itself]. This EU pressure is most probably a result of [Azerbaijani President] Ilham
Aliyev's meeting with [French President] Jacques Chirac. He was probably told there that in his time Heydar Aliyev
had managed to resist pressure, although he had agreed with this plan. Ilham Aliyev has no international authority to
resist pressure from Armenia's Western patrons. This plan cannot be regarded as successful. Only the full return of
all the occupied territories can be regarded as success."
The deputy chairman of the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party [reformist wing], Fuad Mustafayev, also said that
"this process will be completely successful when all the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, including Nagornyy Karabakh,
are liberated". It is difficult to judge which demands the Armenian side will put forward in response. "I
think that all the districts outside Nagornyy Karabakh must be liberated without any preconditions. If the
communications are restored, Azerbaijan will lose one of its most serious means of influence on Armenia. The opening of
the railway means that Armenia will uninterruptedly receive Russia's help, including military aid. I think that the
issue should be solved in a different way. First, Armenia should liberate all the districts outside Nagornyy Karabakh.
Second, Armenia has to recognize Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. We have to try to solve the issue in a complex
manner, i.e. we need to receive guarantees that all the occupied territories will be liberated. At the moment, all this
is about a partial solution to this issue, which is why it is difficult for me to give a positive assessment of these
proposals. I could not understand from Azimov's statement how Azerbaijan will benefit from this plan and what we
will receive in return."
The former head of the Azerbaijani presidential secretariat, Eldar Namazov, said that the EU proposal is not a new
idea. "Neither is the Baku government's reaction to it. Since the second half of the 1990s, the EU has come up
with this proposal, and the then Azerbaijani leadership had accepted this plan, but the Armenian side rejected it. The
Azerbaijani authorities' logic was that, in fact, this was the stage-by-stage settlement that Azerbaijan had
insisted on."
At the same time, this plan has certain "reefs", Namazov says. "It means that Armenia has not accepted
this plan yet. But even if Armenia accepts it, one should be very careful in determining the details of this agreement
because it might have conditions that will make it impossible to defend Azerbaijan's position on Nagornyy
Karabakh's status in the future. Given all these nuances, this proposal is acceptable to Azerbaijan."
[Ekho] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
