Azernews.Az

Thursday March 28 2024

Stalemate in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution threats peace, stability in region

26 September 2014 21:52 (UTC+04:00)
Stalemate in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution threats peace, stability in region

By Sara Rajabova

The conflicts in the OSCE area are the key threats to the peace and security on the European continent.

Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov made the remark during his speech at the OSCE Ministerial Event on "Addressing the Crisis of European Security: The Way Forward and the Role of the OSCE".

The event was took part on the sidelines of the 69th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 26.

Minister Mammadyarov noted that the current stalemate situation in the settlement process of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is very dangerous in terms of peace and stability in the region.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

Mammadyarov said the breakthrough for the resolution of the conflict is a withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories and return of ethnically cleansed Azerbaijani population back their homes.

This action will help to create the atmosphere of confidence between Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, which is a very important element towards sustainable peace building, the Minister underlined.

"We believe that the OSCE participating states reaffirm their unequivocal expectations for the soonest resolution of this conflict based on the above-mentioned approaches," Mammadyarov said.

He further noted a number of challenges in the OSCE area that prevent it to perform effectively.

"We observe a number of new challenges in the OSCE area that prevent this Organization to perform effectively functions that it has been mandated to and, hence, affect security of its participating states. Among them there is a selective misinterpretation of the founding principles of the Helsinki Final Act, the growing number of instances of the threat or use of force in international relations, as well as a failure to ensure inviolability of internationally recognized borders of the OSCE participating states as a result of this use of force." Mammadyarov said.

The Minister stressed that there is a lack of comprehensive and integral approach to the human rights and fundamental freedoms, application of double standards and selectiveness, attempts to destabilize security of the OSCE participating states under the pretext of human rights concerns.

He warned that the attempts to transform the organization into an area of competing and opposing political­military groupings are troubling. "Such groupings-based competition and build-ups puts under question the indivisibility of the OSCE area and seriously affects those states that due to different limitations cannot or will not join collective defense institutions and are not in comfort with diminishing role of OSCE in the European security architecture."

Mammadyarov said within the OSCE area no state, group of states or organization can claim a primary responsibility for maintaining peace and stability or consider any part of the OSCE area as its sphere of influence.

"For non-bloc countries like Azerbaijan, OSCE is the pan-European security guarantor, whose multinational engagement protects Azerbaijan from biases of unilateral involvement," he said.

Mammadyarov went on to note that there is a growing trend of simultaneously developing integration processes in the OSCE area, which put a number of risks and challenges not only for those striving to be part of integration processes, but also for non-block participating states.

"Those processes are not discussed within the OSCE, but they affect security of the OSCE participating states and impact on the scope of implementation of the OSCE commitments. If they lead to a crisis situation, then OSCE remains the only regional arrangement to react, since neither of the competing integration unions or blocks is eager to compromise and develop a culture of dialogue and constructive engagement," Mammadyarov underlined.

He considered the OSCE as a cornerstone of the European security architecture, noting that it is important to recognize the role of the organization as of a platform for dialogue and promotion of trust and security.

"As the OSCE participating States we have to reiterate our commitment to uphold the Helsinki Final Act, its founding principles, as well as other OSCE commitments, which are the foundation and cornerstone of our cooperative security" the Minister pointed out.

He further added that the OSCE documents established clear standards for participating states' treatment of each other and of all individuals within their territories.

"All OSCE commitments, without exception, apply equally to each participating state. Their implementation in good faith is essential for relations between states, governments and their peoples, as well as between the organizations of which they are members," Mammadyarov said.

He also underlined that OSCE is neither a rival nor a competitor to any Western or Eurasian dominated unions or blocks, but it is a broad platform where disagreements and contradictions may be constructively addressed.

Mammadyarov stressed that the advantage of the OSCE would be fully utilized, if the organization could manage not only to react to emerging crises, but preferably to prevent them from escalating.

"We believe that the major mission of the OSCE is and should be the protection of norms and principles it advocates without constraints, double standards and geographical preferences, and to ensure the respect for them in interrelations of its participating states," the Minister said.

He noted the importance of opening the OSCE agenda for discussion of any issue affecting security of any OSCE participating state and to try to address them in a constructive, non-accusatory manner. "To that end, there is a need to improve informal consultations among major stakeholders in the OSCE and those states who feel that their security is affected."

"In this context, the Platform for Co-operative Security, which was adopted as an essential element of the Charter for European Security of 1999, is an advantage that is underutilized in OSCE," Mammadyarov said.

He added that it can further strengthen and develop co-operation with competent organizations on the basis of equality and in a spirit of partnership.

"Such cooperation should be mutually reinforcing, while security interests of the non-block OSCE States should be taken into consideration in the inter-institutional talks on establishing cooperative relations among the OSCE and its partners," Mammadyarov concluded.

Loading...
Latest See more