The Jakarta Post: Intercultural forum clouded by issue of occupied land

The Jakarta Post

Monday, April 18, 2011

While Azerbaijan may seem to have successfully established itself as an icon of tolerance and pluralism, the Muslim-majority country’s conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region has become a major concern at a forum it is hosting to foster cultural understanding.

While both Armenia, a Christian-majority country, and Azerbaijan both lay claim to the territory, ethnic and religious problems have deepened the conflict.

In his remarks to open the World Inter-Cultural Dialogue Forum, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said a policy of ethnic cleansing had been carried against Azerbaijanis, stressing that Armenia still occupied the territory despite resolutions by the UN Security Council acknowledging his country’s claim to the area.

“One million Azerbaijanis have been displaced from their native land. The four UN Security Council resolutions are not being enforced, although they say that the occupying forces should withdraw from occupied Azerbaijani lands,” he told participants at the forum.

Aliyev said the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had all adopted similar resolutions and decisions to acknowledge Azerbaijan’s claim.

“Unfortunately, the occupation continues. We hope the negotiating process will yield positive results, Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity will be restored and our countrymen affected by the occupation will return to their homes,” he said.

The current conflict has its roots in events following World War I. Shortly before the Ottoman Empire’s capitulation in the war, the Russian Empire collapsed in November 1917 and the country fell to the Bolsheviks.

The three nations of the Caucasus — Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia — previously under Soviet rule, declared their independence.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war in 1988 over the territory, the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which ended in a cease-fire in 1994.

This resulted in de facto Armenian control of the territory. However, both sides agreed to observe a cease-fire, in effect since May 1994. In late 1995, both countries also agreed to mediation by the OSCE Minsk Group.

The Minsk Group is currently cochaired by the US, France, and Russia and comprises Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and several Western European nations. Despite the cease-fire, 40 clashes are reported along the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict lines of control each year.

After the war, relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan remained tense. In 2008, Aliyev declared that “Nagorno-Karabakh will never be independent; the position is backed by international mediators as well; Armenia has to accept the reality”.

The two countries are still technically at war and the Azerbaijani government has expressed its intention to retake Nagorno-Karabakh by military force, if mediation by the OSCE Minsk Group does not succeed.

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