Unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict threat to int'l security: analyst
By Sara Rajabova
The delay in resolving the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is a threat to transnational security, according to Richard Weitz, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute, a US think-tank.
Such areas in the center of Eurasia as Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, Transnistria, certainly pose a risk to security, Weitz said at a roundtable organized by the US embassy in Azerbaijan on June 14.
The analyst says the presence of such territories facilitates smuggling of goods, as well as drug transit.
Speaking about the root-causes of the conflict, Weitz said the collapse of the former Soviet Union has created severe problems in many countries of the former Soviet Union. This problem, he said. emerged as a result of Stalin's policy.
Meanwhile, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists that the presidents of Russia, the U.S. and France, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama and Francois Hollande, plan to sign a joint statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict following negotiations in the framework of the G8 summit, RIA Novosti reported on June 14.
"With 100 percent certainty I can say that Obama, Putin and Hollande will adopt a statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem," Ushakov said.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against the neighboring country. Since a lengthy war between the two South Caucasus countries that displaced over a million Azerbaijanis and ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Peace talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs representing the United States, Russia and France have been largely fruitless so far.
The negotiations are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles, also known as Basic Principles. The document envisions a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to return home.