EurasiaNet: Azerbaijan targets OSCE Special Representative for crticism

Hopes for a breakthrough in the Karabakh peace process, so high at the outset of 2006, now appear to be thoroughly dashed. In a mid-August speech to Azerbaijani diplomats, President Ilham Aliyev indicated that Baku’s position is hardening. "Azerbaijan will not tolerate the creation of a second Armenian state on its territory," the president said.

Another sign that trouble may be looming on the horizon is the vehement criticism coming from Baku aimed at Andrzej Kasprzyk, the special representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office on Karabakh-related issues. Recent statements by Azerbaijani officials, backed by media reports, have portrayed Kasprzyk as incompetent, biased in favour of Armenia and possibly involved in nefarious financial dealings under the guise of diplomatic immunity.

Having held the special representative designation for nearly a decade, Kasprzyk's responsibilities include managing existing cease-fire monitoring mechanisms and promoting confidence-building measures between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He also supports the OSCE's Minsk Group in promoting a lasting peace settlement for Karabakh.

Now it appears that Kasprzyk no longer enjoys the confidence of Aliyev's administration. Dissatisfaction with Kasprzyk's handling of a recent inquiry into a series of fires in areas of Azerbaijan under occupation by Armenian forces triggered Baku's attacks against him. The fires began breaking out in June. Convinced that the blazes had been deliberately set by Armenians, Azerbaijani officials pressed Kasprzyk to look into the matter, and quickly started to criticize him for not pursuing the investigation vigorously.

Azerbaijani officials reportedly became enraged when Kasprzyk's report went into specific detail about the damage done by the fires, but shied away from examining how they started. The closest the report got to taking a stand was a suggestion that, given the arid conditions prevailing in the area during the summer, fire was a perennial threat.

"I am not an investigator," the Arminfo news agency quoted Kasprzyk as saying. "I could not find any evidence about what caused the fires." He indicated that international efforts to monitor the fires was hampered by gunfire exchanges between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces deployed along the so-called contact line.

On August 17, the Turan news agency quoted Novruz Mamedov, the head of the Azerbaijani presidential administration’s International Department, as complaining that Kasprzyk and the Minsk Group co-chairs had "displayed a belated reaction" to Baku's request for an investigation, thus "showing their one-sided position."

The same day, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated that "the non-prevention of Armenian-instigated blazes in the occupied territories may lead to an ecological catastrophe." Other Azerbaijani officials assailed Yerevan, accusing Armenian authorities of taking no action to fight the fires. Azerbaijani authorities at the same time appealed to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and UNESCO for help in containing the fires. Armenian officials have generally maintained a low profile in the controversy.

From Baku's viewpoint, the fires are politically motivated, designed to prevent the resettlement of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons. "If the fires continue, it will create problems for people who will move to these areas; people will not be able to use this land for at least the next five-10 years," Araz Azimov, Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister, told reporters.

Azimov went on to ridicule Kasprzyk's assessment on the fires. "Kasprzyk himself admitted that he is not an ecologist," Azimov said. "Therefore, his [inference] that natural causes were behind the fires in the occupied territories is completely groundless," Azimov said.

Despite their clear dissatisfaction with Kasprzyk's performance, Azerbaijani officials have not taken formal action to prompt the special representative's replacement. Without such action, Kasprzyk said he intends to keep performing his duties. "I will not resign," the Turan news agency quoted him as saying August 26.

By Khadija Ismayilova, an analyst based in Washington, and Shain Abbasov, a freelance journalist based in Baku.

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