Today.Az » Politics » Zahid Oruj: "Kosovo's case showed that international peaceekeping forces promote independence of the conflict area instead of fulfilling their direct task"
12 March 2008 [12:43] - Today.Az
Russia's criticism of Azerbaijan's decision to withdraw its peacekeepers from Kosovo was a surprise.
The due announcement was made by MP Zahid Oruj, member of the permanent parliamentary commission for Defense and Security.
He said for many observers, the decision to withdraw peacekeepers was linked to Russia and they considered that the agreement on this issue was reached at the recent informal summit of the CIS.
"Though it does not correspond to reality"
He said Azerbaijan has withdrawn its peacekeeping forces from Kosovo due to changes in the political situation in Kosovo.
"The question arises here: Does Azerbaijan refuse to cooperate with the United States and NATO? Certainly, not. On the contrary, I think that the forces, withdrawn from Kosovo, will be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Thus, Azerbaijan will show once against that it acts legally. However, this can not be said about Russia. I can say openly: the task of Russian servicemen left there is mainly to encourage various destructive processes. Azerbaijani servicemen were fulfilling their peacekeeping mission there, which can not be said about Russia", Oruj noted.
He said that recognition of Kosovo's independence will create two challenges.
"The first one is a significant distrust to international peacekeeping forces, after they started to ensure Kosovo's independence. Noone would guarantee that peacekeepers will not take control over the situation in any region they are deployed in and start to implement its plan regarding the future of the region.
According to him, the second challenge lies in the policy of Russia, which tries to attract such countries as Azerbaijan, which carry out the policy of Euro-Atlantic integration, on its side.
"Today, there is a coalition of countries, which do not recognize Kosovo. They include the countries from China to Romania. All of them are encouraged by Russia. This country in fact encourages ethnic separatism in the South Caucasus and Moldova. If not for the Russian factor, our country would have got rid of separatism long ago", he concluded.
/Day.Az/
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