Negotiating an End toConflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
Negotiating an End to Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
"The final stage of genocide is denial [Ottoman-era Turkey's genocidal war aganst Armenians], By being this aggressive, there's fear that Turkey has ulterior motives in this conflict.""There's now documented evidence that Turkey has been ferrying religious, extremist fighters from Syria into Azerbaijan to fight Armenian forces."Kyle Matthews, executive director, Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia University"My message was very clear, that Turkey and all external parties should stay out of the conflict ... we had a firm discussion where I was firm with him [Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu] as to where Canada stands. We're calling on the parties to respect the ceasefire, to protect civilians, to cease the hostilities. Conflicts are resolved around the negotiating table, not on the battlefield." Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne
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| A house burns after shelling by Azerbaijan's artillery in Stepanakert, the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, late Saturday. (The Associated Press) |
"We are moving towards a truce tonight or tomorrow, but it's still fragile",
explained the office of French President Emmanuel Macron. So fragile,
in the light of a response from Azerbaijan's president that it became
abundantly clear the 'agreement' was barely that, and it was not
destined to last. Turkey, for one, does its best to undermine any
initiatives to try to lead Azerbaijan away from its war trajectory that
emanate from France, the U.S. and Russia.
As
far as Recep Tayyip Erdogan is concerned, the trio's initiatives to end
the conflict was certain to fail. A complete withdrawal of Armenian
forces from Nagorno-Karabakh is a primary requirement, both he and
Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev demand, before talks leading to a
ceasefire can even begin. The two weeks of fighting between Armenian and
Azerbaijani forces and the ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh has
resulted in hundreds of deaths, along with civil infrastructure
destruction.
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| The disputed region has seen two weeks of intense fighting Reuters |
Urging
high-level cessation talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan has consumed
the efforts of France and Russia and the United States. Those efforts
have drawn the haughty contempt of Turkey's Erdogan citing the inability
of previous such interventions to solve the problem of the breakaway
disputed region which internationally is recognized as within
Azerbaijan's borders even while Nagorno-Karabakh is in the control of
ethnic Armenians representing the majority of the region's population.
Armenians
are all too aware that Turkey, which had, under the Ottoman Empire
during World War One, engaged in genocidal horrors against Armenians, is
once again imperiling Armenian lives. The Azeri President Ilham Aliyev,
admitted that following joint military exercises between Turkey and
Azerbaijan, Turkish F-16 jets had remained in his country for weeks
afterward. What reason other than for moral and active support for
Azerbaijan's planned assault on Nagorno-Karabakh?
Armenia's
claims that a Turkish warplane had shot down an Armenian jet, an
accusation denied by both Aliyev and Erdogan, certainly have a hook to
hang a military cap on. Fighting in the enclave, an ethnically Armenian
one with separatist intentions despite the internationally recognized
borders of Azerbaijan, flared up at the end of September as the most
serious outbreak of violence since 1994 between Azerbaijani troops and
ethnic Armenian forces.
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| The two countries, mediated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, took 10 hours to agree to a ceasefire EPA |
The
most recent fierce clashes have succeeded in claiming hundreds of lives
representing both sides of the conflict. Turkey has positioned itself
through Erdogan's political aspirations, as a power broker in the South
Caucasus, where Turkey had repeatedly refused to help lead Azerbaijan to
truce talks. Russia, in support of Armenian interests, extended an
invitation to the foreign ministers of both Armenia and Azerbaijan in a
move by Moscow to reassert its influence in the former Soviet republics.
Russia's
Vladimir Putin retained a sensible perspective emphasizing the need to
negotiate an end to hostilities, a cooling off period during which
prisoners could be exchanged and the bodies of fallen troops handed over
for burial. Even Canada became involved, placing Turkey on notice that
it should remove itself from the conflict.
Relations
between Canada and Turkey are somewhat strained since the export of
drone technology to Turkey was suspended, giving Canada the opportunity
to look into claims Canadian-produced drones were used by Azeri forces
to destroy old Armenian tanks in Nagorno-Karabakh. "We will continue to have a very thorough investigation because
Canada has one of the most robust export regimes in the world. And I intend to respect not only the letter of the law
but the spirit."
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| In this image taken from a video provided by ArmNews TV, people carry out an injured man from the Holy Savior Cathedral after the church was shelled by Azerbaijan's artillery outside Stepanakert in the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh on Oct. 8, 2020. (ArmNews TV via AP) |
As
for Friday night's agreed-to truce, it wore pretty thin fairly quickly
with heavy shelling by both sides continuing overnight irrespective of
the grudging agreement. An uncomplicated scenario where Azeri shelling
hit the enclave and a response from the Armenians ensued. Leaving both
sides to insist it was the other who 'started it'. Even as Nikol
Pashinyan, Armenia's president states his open attitude to a ceasefire,
Ilham Aliyev his Azerbaijani counterpart made it clear he had no
intention of backing off until such time as Armenian forces withdrew.
As
their two foreign ministers sat down in Moscow for ceasefire talks,
Azerbaijaini's Ilham Aliyev condemned years of peace talks which failed
to yield "an inch of progress",
and restated his pledge to continue fighting until his country
succeeded in recapturing all of Nagorno-Karabakh. Some of the rural
areas that Aliyev claims to have taken are located outside Karabakh
itself, and were more or less deserted, their residents streaming into
Karabakh for haven from the Azeri forces.
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| An Azerbaijani officer stands amid the rubble of a residential building destroyed in the fighting in Ganja. Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/TASS |
Labels: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Conflict, Nagorno-Karabakh, Negotiations, Russia, Turkey
posted by Pieface @ Monday, October 12, 2020
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