UN resolution A/RES/62/243

[Aratta-Kingdom]

AZERBAIJAN SEEKS MINSK GROUP'S BREAKING UP

 

DeFacto Agency

March 20 2008

Armenia

 

YEREVAN, 20.03.08. DE FACTO. Azerbaijan is dissatisfied with the work

carried out by the OSCE Minsk group and seeks the OSCE Minsk group's

breaking up via the OSCE secretariat in Baku, the RA FM Vardan Oskanian

stated at the RA NA.

 

"We know it, they officially made an inquiry at the OSCE secretariat",

Vardan Oskanian noted. "It is the first time I have said it. The

process is going on, and we'll do our best to prevent it".

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

ROBERT KOCHARYAN: ARMENIA MAY RECOGNIZE NAGORNO-Artsax

 

Regnum

March 20 2008

Russia

 

If Baku continues implementing its current policy, Yerevan will

respond by recognition of the Nagorno-Artsax Republic and sign with

it agreements, particularly, in the defense field. Acting president

of Armenia Robert Kocharyan made the statement while talking to

journalists on March 20.

 

REGNUM correspondent quotes Kocharyan to say that present activity

of Azerbaijan in international organizations is due to the Kosovo

problem. In particular, Azerbaijan is aiming to create a balance

to the Kosovo precedent and demonstrate that Kosovo cannot be a

precedent for Artsax. "The NKR has more rights for independence than

Kosovo," Kocharyan stressed, detailing that Artsax, among other

accomplishments, has state organizations, independently guards its

borders, and has earlier than Kosovo started the process of gaining

independence.

 

Speaking of the Baku's initiative to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group,

the Armenia's head of state has said the group is the best existing

peace and negotiation-facilitating format, as for the moment. "If

the Azerbaijani side is not happy with the format, it does not mean

that we have to destroy it. If they do not want to negotiate, they

are free not to do it," the Armenian head of state noted. He has

added that Baku should rather think of the future and of who will be

responsible for the further developments, if its scenario is chosen.

 

[Z'areh]

Well they are right about labeling the OSCE Minsk group as 'useless' because they haven't done anything.

Anyone else feels the Azeri hysteria and desperasion?

 

I don't think it is desperation nor it is hysteria, reading official announcements and proclamations the rulers in Baku seem more detached from reality then anything else, mostly due to billions of dollars pouring into the government coffers. This wealth has turned them into arrogant, if not more self-confident, "masters" vis a vis the Armenians. So far, and with good reason, Baku has managed to use its oil wealth to buy a lot of Western "followers", but one should not dismiss the shallowness of those "friends", as well we all know that weapons alone (which the Azeris talk about it every day) do not make a successful army, modern weaponry is only a tool and it is as good as people using it, today there is no reason to believe that the Azeri soldier is capable of taking full advantage of the weapons supposedly being purchased by the oil money, more importantly the Azeri soldier will not die for "daglig Garabag", as much as Baku wants everybody to believe.

 

There are many examples in recent history that underline the importance or the value of a motivated soldier or a fighter. The Azeris, blinded by their oil wealth can probably do a lot of damage to Armenia and Artshakh with their so-called modern weapons, but at the end they will end up losing the war.

 

Azerbaijan can be a much more dangerous adversary if they decide direct their wealth to diversifying their economy, using that money for education, health and create less corrupt governance and lift the living standards for its citizens. There are examples in history that show what happens when an economy is so much concentrated in one industry, one can study the Dutch Syndrome, or Dutch disease, to see what awaits Azerbaijan.

 

As long as the likes of Alyievs are ruling Azerbaijan we don' have to worry about any Azeri "superiority", military or otherwise. In fact, it would be to Armenia's advantage if Alyiev unleashes a war, remember the arrogant declaration of Abulfaz Eltchibey in 1992 saying that him and his wife soon will be swimming on the shores of Lake Sevan, in Azerbaijan.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

A Lesson for Azerbaijan on How to Win a Vote and Lose a Cause

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

 

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on March 14 reaffirming the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, reiterating the right of return of internally displaced Azerbaijanis, and calling for withdrawal of Armenian forces from "occupied territories."

Since the resolution was proposed by Azerbaijan and opposed by Armenia, one would have assumed that Baku would be elated with the outcome of the vote, while Yerevan would be licking its wounds. In reality, neither Azerbaijan nor Armenia was happy with the result.

Azerbaijan was displeased for several reasons. To begin with, just 20% of UN member states (39 out of 193) voted in favor of the Azeri resolution. Most of the states supporting the resolution were fellow Muslim countries (28 out of 39). Even then, less than half (28 out of 57) of the states belonging to the Organization of the Islamic Conference voted with Azerbaijan, despite intensive lobbying and threats by Baku not to sell oil and gas to countries not backing the resolution.

Azerbaijan was also displeased that 100 UN member states abstained and 47 others were absent during the vote. Azeri officials were even more unhappy that among the 7 states voting against the resolution were such major powers as the United States, France and Russia -- the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group of mediators on the Artsakh conflict. Matthew Bryza, the US co-chair of the Minsk Group, defended the US vote against Azerbaijan by stating that the resolution was "one-sided" and that it "did not reflect the fair and balanced nature of the [Minsk Group] proposal on the table." The Azeri Press Agency (APA) claimed that the U.S., France and Russia not only voted against the resolution, but also actively lobbied against its adoption. Mr. Bryza disclosed in an interview with the APA that he had cautioned Azeri officials not to proceed with the resolution.

Instead of listening to Mr. Bryza's wise counsel, the Azeri leadership recklessly went ahead and forced a vote on a resolution that was not going to get supported by the overwhelming majority of the UN member states, thereby damaging Baku's interests! In the aftermath of this fiasco, Azerbaijan declared a diplomatic war against the whole world. Azeri officials announced that they would settle political and economic scores with all those states that voted against, abstained from or were absent during the UN General Assembly vote. This means that Azerbaijan will end up antagonizing more than 150 countries 's 80 percent of the world's nation states!

Furthermore, Azeri officials have sharply criticized the U.S., Russia and France for their opposition to the resolution, and have indicated that they are exploring ways to dissolve or replace the Minsk Group which would completely set back the possibility of resolving the Artsakh conflict in the near future. Azerbaijan has thus succeeded in antagonizing the three most powerful countries in the world.

On the Armenian side, even though Yerevan did not win the vote and did not succeed in blocking the resolution, it took advantage of the Azeri blunder, to announce that Armenia reserves the right to recognize Artsakh as an independent republic, if Azerbaijan tries to side-step the long-standing negotiating process through the Minsk Group.

Since the Baku leadership did such a good job of over-reacting to the UN vote and undermining its interests by antagonizing more than 150 states which did not vote for the resolution, Armenia does not have to exert much effort to counter the UN decision, particularly since it is advisory in nature and does not have a binding effect. Dozens of similar resolutions have been adopted by the UN General Assembly for decades asking Turkey to get out of Northern Cyprus, and Israel to return the "occupied territories." Turkey, Israel and other states have simply ignored such "toothless" resolutions. Armenia will probably do the same.

Finally, Pres. Ilham Aliyev's increasingly frequent threats to resolve the Artsakh conflict by force are not likely to intimidate the Armenian side. If Azerbaijan were militarily prepared to attack, it would have done so without providing advance warning to Armenia. The fact is that Azerbaijan is not capable of invading Artsakh, let alone start a war with Armenia.

Azerbaijan is still suffering from the tragic consequences of its last failed attack on Artsakh. Even though no one welcomes war, should Azerbaijan attack when it is not militarily ready to do so, it may end up losing even more territory and cause the destruction of its valuable energy infrastructure.