The newly elected secretary-general of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Tuesday that Turkey could play
an important role in the decades-long conflict in the disputed area of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier, in an exclusive interview with
Today's Zaman during the sixth trilateral summit between Turkey,
Afghanistan and Pakistan, said: "Turkey is an important player in the
region. It has a political contribution to offer." In the early 1990s,
Nagorno-Karabakh (predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians) and seven
adjacent regions (without any Armenian populations), which were an
integral part of Azerbaijan, became occupied by neighboring country
Armenia.
The historic conflict is especially important to Turkey in its
relations with neighbors Azerbaijan and Armenia. The current stalemate
is nothing new - the OSCE Minsk Group has been working to facilitate
negotiations since 1994 but to no avail. "I am stating a fact - it
[progress] is not happening. Something is missing," said Zannier.
According to Zannier, Turkey’s involvement need not be an official one.
"I am not talking about a formal role in the negotiations, but in real
terms. Turkey is bordering both countries involved in the conflict," he
said.
Zannier, emphasizing the importance of dialogue in solving any
conflict, ventured, "My very personal view is that Turkey needs to
create conditions to promote dialogue on both sides."
But how Turkey goes about this specifically is "Turkey’s call," Zannier
added. "I am not saying we have a monopoly, but why shouldn’t it be the
OSCE? It is a regional organization that deals with security issues.
There is a debate that we should move the issues somewhere else but I am
not convinced that moving it elsewhere would solve the problem. There
is nothing wrong with the organization dealing with the problem. The
problem is the substance of the issue," he said in response to
criticisms of the OSCE’s handling of the conflict.
While the OSCE is doing the best it can, Zannier said it is up to the
parties involved in the conflict to step up to the plate. Zannier
stressed there must be political will on behalf of the parties to end
the historic conflict. "What I said this morning was there is a lot of
focus on the mechanism, but there is also an issue of whether the
parties are ready to make a deal," he said.
While Zannier said that the mechanism could perhaps be improved, he
also emphasized that in the end the power lies with the member
countries. "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot force the horse
to drink. It is a bit the same. We are trying to create the necessary
conditions in the meantime. We are trying to manage the situation on the
ground, but the situation becomes problematic in security terms," he
said. The next step, according to the OSCE secretary general, is
ensuring the problem does not escalate further. "[In general,] if we
cannot line up all of the conditions and solve the conflict, then the
next best thing we can do is manage the problem so it does not grow
worse. So that is our next step. It is up to everyone to keep making
efforts from different angles," he stressed.
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