On September 7 the UN Assembly adopted the formula presented by Azerbaijan called “The situation in the seized territories of Azerbaijan” without voting, which concerns the cases of fire in the surrounding territories of Karabakh. According to the Armenian foreign affairs ministry, “generally the document has become acceptable for Armenia”.
International mass media has discussed this issue and on the basis of that information, we may assume that the understanding of the mentioned issue has changed: the mentioned issue is covered the news as a conflict for territories between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as a territory that has been occupied from Azerbaijan by Armenia. Besides that, “Associate Press” writes about the Karabakh war as “a separating war”. However, “Inner City Press” (New York) has discussed the mentioned issue too. According to them, the UN has only given ten minutes for considering that formula, during which the countries that voted for the approval of the mentioned formula were the U.S., Turkey, Ukraine in the name of GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) and Pakistan on behalf of the Islamic conference organization. “This diplomatic attack brought to the fact that the formula addressed to the OSCE consisting of five points was approved, which petitions the environmental preservation program of the UN to collaborate with OSCE for the purpose of providing expert and advisory support and to prepare a statement and present it to the General Assembly member countries until April 30, 2007”, writes “Inner City Press”. The latter also writes that before approving the formula they had negotiated with Armenia for two days for the purpose of agreeing its text. “Inner City” writes that according to its sources of information that are informed about the negotiations, the main point of discussion was a point in the formula, according to which a final report should be prepared and presented to the General Assembly. It writes that Armenia is against discussing any kinds of issues concerning Karabakh in the UN. “If the UN is involved in the Palestine conflict, if it is involved in the Abkhazian conflict too, what kind of relations may the UN have with Karabakh?”, – these questions have been sent to the press department of the UN by the reporter, to which the UN replied that the UN development and support programs don’t apply in the territory of Karabakh. “Inner City Press” writes that even though in many countries the UN is implementing development and support programs, those programs are implemented without the formula of the UN Security Council. According to the mentioned newspaper, Karabakh and, for instance, Kasamanse in Senegal are not territories that are alike. “They say that if you live in a territory, which is under the influence of any of the five members of the UN Security Council (the USA, Russia, France, China and Great Britain), you will not have success in the UN”, writes “Inner City Press”. According to the newspaper, the list of such countries is long and Karabakh is included in that list as well. According to “Inner City Press”, Azerbaijan assures that the cases of fire in the territories near the border are caused on the part of Armenians and expects international pressure on Armenia so that it “can enter those territories”. The newspaper writes that both the Armenian representative to the UN, Armen Martirosyan, and the RA foreign affairs minister, Vardan Oskanyan, have numerously announced that if Azerbaijan continues developing that issue in the UN, the negotiations process will be stopped. According to the newspaper, their sources from Armenia criticize the GUAM, which is trying to move the issue of the conflicts in Karabakh, Southern Osya and Near Dnestr to the UN. “Armenia is concerned about the fact that in the UN, in contrast to the OSCE, Azerbaijan may be advocated by Islamic countries, but being advocated by Islamic countries is not the only success of Azerbaijan”, writes the paper and adds that recently Azeri foreign affairs minister Elmar Mamediarov met his Swedish colleague, Yan Eliason, who used to be the head of the General Assembly. After the mentioned meeting Mr. Eliason said to “Inner City Press” that he believed that the UN would reach more success by settling the Karabakh conflict than the OSCE. “I advocate the General Assembly more actively”, said the foreign affairs minister of Sweden. We were informed that Azerbaijan had founded a group, which would deal with the activities connected with the formula adopted by the UN (“The situation in the seized territories of Azerbaijan”). According to the press secretary of the Azeri foreign affairs minister, Tair Taghazade, the group consists of high ranking officials and officials of ministries. It is not clear yet what kind of steps the Armenian diplomacy may take in response to the mentioned issue. We wonder whether Armenia will consider the announcements on stopping the negotiations process enough or not.
P.S. ON September 8 the Armenian foreign affairs ministry made a statement, which writes that on September 6, Kordoba region of Argentina brought up and recognized the Armenian Genocide.