Today.Az » Politics » Dennis Sammut: "A dialogue between the Azerbaijani government and its civil society on the Karabakh conflict will make the position of Azerbaijan in the international arena much stronger"
18 September 2008 [12:51] - Today.Az
Day.Az interview with chief executive of British NGO LINKS Dennis Sammut.
- Can
you comment about the Russian decision to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia?
- I was surprised that Russia has recognized
Abkhazia and South Ossetia unilaterally. Quite apart from the fact that Russia
had recognized Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union within the
borders of the Georgia SSR and had been party to various UN and OSCE
resolutions which supported Georgia’s territorial integrity, the decision has
wide and long term implications for the whole international system, but more
significantly and immediately it has implications on all the post soviet space.
The status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should be defined through a wider
international effort and the Russians could have put their case for
independence in such a context.
- How
will it influence the situation in the region?
- It makes the situation in the Caucasus even
more complicated than before. I do not believe that this is what the Russians
wanted. Russia has an interest in peace and stability in the Caucasus. It is
just that it sometimes goes to achieve this objective in a heavy handed manner.
Russia has yet to learn the lesson of how to use soft power. Tanks and guns are
not the only way to project power.
- Will
the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia help to resolve their conflict
with Georgia?
- In the short term this is going to make
even basic discussions and negotiations difficult. It will be up to the Georgian leadership to
be pragmatic and not to worry too much about symbols but to engage with
Abkhazia and South Ossetia on more substantial issues. If the international
community is able to be creative and to be united in wanting peace in the
region it can still come up with formulas that would enable both Georgia, as
well as Abkhazia and South Ossetia, to come out of this with honour. The
Abkhaz de facto president, Mr Bagapsh
has been talking about making Abkhazia an offshore financial centre. Offshore centres
need stability to succeed. So I think once the dust settles down both sides
will need to find channels of
communication and ways to move forward.
- And
what is the impact of all this on Karabakh?
- Diplomats, both Russian and American and
European say that Karabakh is a different case. But then they said this about
Kosovo also! Of course they are right in that each conflict has its own specific
dynamics but we must expect some fallout from the Georgian crisis in the
Karabakh context too. For me there is
one important lesson to be learnt by everybody, namely that it is a big mistake
to leave these conflicts unresolved. There should now be an urgent renewal of
the effort to solve the Karabakh conflict peacefully and both the international
community and the parties directly involved need to revitalize the peace
process.
- Do
you think that the initiative of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to launch a
Caucasus Stability and Co-operation platform can contribute to peace in the
region?
- I think the Turkish initiative is long
overdue and I congratulate the Turkish Government and Turkish diplomacy for
starting the process. This is not going to be an easy process. The CSCE process
in Europe during the cold war took ten years to prepare and two years of
intensive negotiations before the Helsinki Final Act could be agreed. I think
we can move quicker in the Caucasus but this will still require a long term
engagement and Turkish diplomacy needs to stick with the idea through its ups
and downs, of which I am sure there will be many. I believe for this idea to succeed
it must be inclusive. The US and the EU
must play a full role. Iran should be brought in. And then the biggest challenge will be how to
engage with the de facto authorities in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno
Karabakh. We have an absolutely new situation now in the Caucasus. In a
relatively small region we have three tier s of political entities: sovereign
states that are part of the international system; states that have self
declared independence and have been recognized by some, and unrecognized states.
How to get everybody round the table to sort out the mess we are in now is a
challenge we all have to engage with.
- How
will LINKS change its work to respond to the new situation?
- We have first and foremost to continue
providing a space for key players from different sides to discuss with each
other in informal and semi formal frameworks. I think that if more of this was
done in the previous years between Russians and Georgians and Georgians and
Ossetians we will not be where we are today.
Secondly we will contribute with ideas
about how we can move the different processes forward. We are working closely
with other non governmental organizations in Europe and in the region and we
will intensify this work. Governments must start listening more to what civil
society has to say.
I want to appeal specifically to the
Government of Azerbaijan to open a dialogue with its civil society on the
Karabakh conflict and on the future of the region. Such a dialogue will not be
a sign of weakness but a sign of strength and it will make the position of
Azerbaijan in the international arena much, much stronger. But it will need to
be a real dialogue not something orchestrated for media consumption.
At the moment LINKS is working with other
organizations in the framework of the Consortium Initiative to prepare concrete
suggestions on these issues which we hope to discuss with both the Azerbaijani,
as well as the Armenian government in the near future.
/Day.Az/
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