Interview with member of Azerbaijani Milli Majlis (parliament) Gultakin Hajibayli.
In your opinion, once the United States and Europe want to see thaw in Turkey-Armenia relations, why them not to do it by resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict given that Turkey has linked these two processes with each other?
If the U.S. and Europe had a political will in relation to the Karabakh conflict, the matter would have long been resolved. Today there are a number of legal prerequisites for resolving the territorial dispute. These include a number of resolutions by the UN Security Council (the latter was adopted in 2008) and PACE (2005).
The world powers just lack a political will get these decisions implemented. Unfortunately, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are more interested in clarifying the relationship between themselves, rather than to facilitate the settlement of the conflict.
Though Turkey has announced on many occasions it will not open borders with Armenia until there is significant progress in the Karabakh problem, the United States and Europe still put pressure on it to ensure that Ankara does not connect these two issues.
It is worth noting that the West is interested in expanding Turkey’s influence in our region, because it wishes to extend its influence in the region through Turkey. In the meantime, the U.S. and Europe do not want an open confrontation with Moscow which has its own interests in the Caucasus.
Thus, it turns out that the issues of restoring Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and return of refugees to their native lands are not being solved because of the geopolitical struggle between various forces in our region.
Some experts believe that Turkey may establish diplomatic relations with Armenia without opening the border between the two states. What is your view on this issue?
Given that Turkey has stated many times that it considers Azerbaijan’s interests as its own, such scenario of events are unlikely to happen. If Turkey establishes diplomatic relations with Yerevan, it will cause great damage to relations with Azerbaijan.
It should be understood that the closure of the Armenian-Turkish border is more political than economic in nature, because Turkey will get no benefit from trade relations with poor Armenia. If the border opens, it will look like some kind of political rehabilitation for Turkey.
Given these factors, as well as Ankara’s repeated statements that the rapprochement with Armenia is completely dependent on progress in settlement of the Karabakh conflict, I think that probability of establishing diplomatic relations between Ankara and Yerevan are equal to zero.
What is the current balance of powers in the PACE (including committees and subcommittees) in terms of the Karabakh issue?
There is enough forces in the Council of Europe who realize that the double standards with regard to the principle of territorial integrity of States is equal to playing with fire. Violation of this principle would be reshape of Europe and disintegration of the EU. PACE has a clear understanding of this and therefore supports territorial integrity of countries such as Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Another thing is that the support to Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is less enthusiastic than to that of Georgia. But this fact did not prevent adoption of PACE Resolution No. 1416, which fully supports Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. This suggests that Europe does not recognize the situation that appeared as a result of aggression describing the regime in Nagorno-Karabakh as separatist.
So, we can say that the CE has a clear position on settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
During the latest PACE hearings on the property rights of refugees and internally displaced persons, my report on Azerbaijan was listened to with great interest and understanding. However, Armenia’s report which accused Azerbaijan of all “earthly sins” was met with sarcasm.
This again shows that despite the fact that Azerbaijan has started to work actively with Europe on the Karabakh issue later than Armenia, its position is becoming stronger. Although a number of forces still support Armenia’s view on the Karabakh conflict in PACE, majority of forces still adhere to common sense and understanding of the fundamental principle of territorial integrity of States.
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