Azerbaijan looks forward to European decisive actions
By Nigar Orujova
The Munich Security Conference this year was very different as it was aimed to find solutions to pressing conflicts.
The 51st Munich Security Conference gathered some 400 politicians and experts on February 6-8 to find ways out of the current crises in Ukraine and in the Middle East.
The conflict in Ukraine gave the meeting a strong purpose, elucidating other problems in regions, with no exception of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
At the "Beyond Ukraine: Unresolved Conflicts in Europe” session, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev primarily noted that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem was discussed only in the past year, after escalation of tragic situation in Ukraine.
“The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been going on for more than 20 years. This conflict began before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The conflict led to the occupation of the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan. Twenty percent of our territories are under occupation, Nagorno-Karabakh - the historic part of Azerbaijan is captured. All Azerbaijanis were forcibly expelled from Nagorno-Karabakh. Seven surrounding districts with a population of 700,000 people are also under Armenian occupation,” the president stressed.
Today, everything is destroyed at the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, and the country is engaged in ineffective negotiations for over 20 years.
“The OSCE is dealing with this issue and has a special group engaging in the settlement of the conflict. This group is called the Minsk Group and its Co-Chairs are three permanent members of the UN Security Council - Russia, France and the United States. This group has been operating for more than 22 years, but no results have been achieved yet," President Aliyev said.
Today, it is perfectly clear that in certain circumstances, decisions of the United Nations are executed almost immediately, and international mediators are making everything possible to resolve the conflicts.
However, four UN resolutions adopted in early 1990s are still calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian military force from Azerbaijan.
The president said the main problem is lack of an international will to put pressure on Armenia.
“Armenia will not be able to live without the support from outside. It is supported mainly by the countries co-chairs of the Minsk Group. And this is ironic. Here we can see a double standard, and it saddens us. I want to note that the same attitude should be shown to all the conflicts in the post-Soviet territories. Territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has the same value as the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which is now on everyone's lips," President Aliyev stressed.
The similarity between the conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine are not accidental. They developed in a similar scenario but the international community has taken two different approches towards them.
The head of state added that if foreign countries in due time paid more attention to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and it was resolved, it is possible, the situation would not repeat itself in Ukraine.
President Aliyev also revealed the details of Azerbaijani peace initiatives. "We have already put forward a proposal to open all communications between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Thus, Armenia will have rail access to Russia through our territory. In addition, Turkey will open all communications with Armenia. Thus, we will eliminate any potential risks associated with the beginning of military operations, and will start to build confidence."
The head of state added that Armenia has rejected these proposals.
Azerbaijan does not hide its disappointment with ineffectiveness of international mediations and the fact that Europe, which is now active to resolve Ukraine crisis remained indifferent towards events unfolded in Nagorno-Karabakh.
However, Azerbaijan is also valuable for Europe. The contributions of Azerbaijan into the energy security of the European Union should not be forgotten.
Speaking at “Diversification strategies” roundtable of the Conference, Azerbaijan’s president said Azerbaijan is playing a decisive role in providing neighboring countries with energy security.
“Now after signing important agreements on Southern Gas corridor we are becoming an important partner of Europe. We have already managed to diversify our energy supply routes,” Aliyev said.
Today oil from Azerbaijan provides some 30-40 percent of the energy balance of some European countries. And now it’s time for gas, he said.
The president said gas from Azerbaijan is the only new gas source, which European consumers will get in the nearest future.
“We are committed to implementing the first part - TANAP by 2018, TAP by 2020. But we need coordination, more support and more mutual trust between all members of the team,” President Aliyev stressed.
Azerbaijan is one of the few young countries in the world which took on a lot of commitment and fulfilled them. It is time to foreign partners to do the same for their part.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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