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Charles King: â€œThe Nagorno-Karabakh issue remains Azerbaijan’s most serious immediate concern on its further developmentâ€ â€“ EXCLUSIVE

Charles King: â€œThe Nagorno-Karabakh issue remains Azerbaijan’s most serious immediate concern on its further developmentâ€ <font color=red>â€“ EXCLUSIVE </font>

22 April 2008 08:32 (UTC +04:00)

- NATO summit was held in Bucharest. Unlike Georgia and Ukraine, where the countriesâ€™ societies are supporting the membership in NATO, the Azerbaijani society doesnâ€™t have firm position on the issue. Thus it would be interesting to know your opinion about perspectives of Azerbaijanâ€™s membership in NATO and its impact on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
-NATO has been clear that the resolution of internal conflicts and good
neighborly relations with surrounding states are important criteria for
membership. The US has pushed Georgia forward on the path to eventual
membership, but that policy has had more to do with US strategic
interests in Georgia than with the degree to which Georgia fulfills (or
doesn’t fulfill) some of the basic criteria. An instructive case is
Romania. It was not until Romania and Hungary signed a treaty renouncing
any mutual territorial claims and committed to developing sound
interstate relations that Romania was able to advance toward membership.
I think the same logic will apply farther to the east, if there is
eventually another wave of NATO enlargement.
- You are one of the well known experts on the Balkan conflict. Your most recent book â€œThe Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasusâ€ is devoted to our region too. We know that the international community had reacted seriously on the policy of ethnic cleansing, terrible crimes against Kosovars and NATO started military â€œrescueâ€ operation against official Belgrade. But absolutely another respond came for the crimes of the Armenian illegal bands in Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result of the policy of ethnic cleansing Armenia occupies 20% of Azerbaijani lands and appeals to the Kosovo precedent nowâ€¦
-Conflicts in the Balkans presented an immediate security threat to
several European states, both because of the flight of refugees and
because of the reappearance of armed conflict on the borders of the EU
and within the traditional area of operations of NATO. The Caucasus--for
better or worse--has long been considered outside the immediate sphere
of interest of both organizations. However, as these two organizations
reassess their security interests and the possibility of future
enlargement to the east, the Caucasus comes squarely within their zone
of concern. I think it would be a mistake to take away any particular
lessons from the Balkans, however. After all, in the case of Kosovo, the
international community supported secessionist demands, while in Bosnia
and Croatia (especially the Serb Republic of the Krajina) the response
was to support the territorial integrity of the existing states. So, the
precedents that one can derive from the Balkan experience are unclear at
best.
-On March 20 you paneled the US-Azerbaijan conference in Georgetown University. One of the main topics was the main threats to Azerbaijan in the region. How serious threat may Russia, Iran and unsolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict create for Azerbaijan in its decision to integrate the European institutions? Do you see Iran or Russia as the main threat to secular democratic Azerbaijan now?
-Many of the speakers see things in different ways, so it is difficult to
comment on the event as a whole. In my view, the Nagorno-Karabakh issue
remains Azerbaijan’s most serious immediate concern, just as other
unresolved disputes in Georgia and Moldova serve as a brake on the
further development of these states. At the same time, I think it is
incumbent on the Azerbaijani Government not to use its newfound oil and
gas wealth as a way of increasing its military capabilities in such a
way that would further destabilize the situation. A renewed war over
Nagorno-Karabakh would be disastrous for the entire south Caucasus and
would present a serious set-back to all countries’ efforts to integrate
with Euro-Atlantic institutions.