Yerevan, July 17. ArmInfo. Absolute
refusal of all the parties to the Karabakh conflict to apply force and
resume war must be the first and foremost "unconditional condition,"
former OSCE MG Vladimir Kazimirov says in his article "Discouraging
From Resolution by Threats and Blood."
Kazimirov says that by disclosing the
key settlement principles the OSCE MG co-chairs sought not only to report
on their work and to pressurize the leaders of the conflicting parties
but also to start "making ready for peace" their public opinion.
Now they are discussing pluses and minuses of the peace process but if
they actually want to ensure peace, they better give this a wider approach.
Kazimirov says that some media have translated the report and the statements with lots of inaccuracies, which has given rise to false rumors. As long as more Armenians and Azeris know Russian better than English, such documents should be made in Russian. They in Vienna translate into English better than they in the South Caucasus - from English, says Kazimirov.
One should not use in vain such important terms as "principles" and "agreements" as here the question is hardly about any "basic principles" or "framework agreements." The co-chairs have presented just general contours but no specific principles. True, they are trying to apply two real principles: non-application of force and peaceful resolution of disputes. Here they must be given all-out support. Still, it is very early yet to speak about "framework agreement": even if there were specific principles, it would take much time to negotiate each of them into a full value juridically binding agreement.
Kazimirov says that one should not expect Armenia to talk Karabakh into conceding. How can one hope to oblige Karabakh Armenians to withdraw their troops from the five districts around Karabakh unless they also sign to the agreement. Comprehensive agreement requires consent of all the conflicting parties (like was the case during the May 12 1994 truce). In this light, it is surprising to see "two parties" mentioned in the Vienna text. Three parties to the Karabakh conflict have long been mentioned in the OSCE documents and recognized by the OSCE MG co-chairs. Who has changed this approach?
One can't start by withdrawing troops from occupied territories and then see what comes next. Peace guarantees are mentioned just casually as secondary measure, while the first and foremost "unconditional condition" (sine qua non) must be the guarantee of non-application of force and non-resumption of war.
Kazimirov advises his colleagues to actively engraft commitment to peace and non-application of force in the conflicting parties. Azerbaijan and Armenia have repeatedly committed themselves not to use mutual threats but they keep breaking their commitments.
Kazimirov says that the mediators should give not only the rest of 2006 but also the next two years to come as close as possible to real peace agreement and should abstain for the time being from raising this issue at G8 or even UN SC.