Archive
News for December 14-19
THE OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS DID NOT BRING ANY NEW
PROPOSALS BUT INTENDS TO DO SO
BAKU, 14 DECEMBER, AZER-PRESS. 'Armenia's government means to continue the
dialogue with Azerbaijan about just resolution of the conflict over
Nagorno Karabakh, and we have good reasons to expect that the two parties
will soon be able to reach agreement on some aspects,' said the Russian
co-chairman of the OSCE MG Nikolay Gribkov upon arrival in Baku late on 13
December.
He, and his French and American colleagues Jean-Jacques Gayard and Keri
Kavano came from Nagorno Karabakh.
In the opinion of Mr Gribkov, Azerbaijan and Armenia alike shall have to
accept serious compromises for otherwise the conflict cannot be resolved.
'There must be no winner and no loser, and neither side should feel
injured because otherwise resolution is out of the question,' said Mr
Gribkov.
He added that the co-chairmen had not brought any new proposals to Baku.
'Our trip is on the introductory side, and we shall think of new proposals
when we are able to sum up our meetings in Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and
Azerbaijan,' went on Mr Gribkov.
Commenting on the presence in the Russian delegation of his predecessor
Vladimir Kazimirov, Mr Gribkov said that 'conflict resolution in Nagorno
Karabakh' was the 'first love' of Mr Kazimirov, who terminated his holiday
to return to the subject.
Mr Kazimirov told the press that he had come to Baku as a private person,
and that 'Mutual accommodations are necessary. I am glad that there is the
reason for regular meetings of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Previously, our negotiations were useless sometimes as there was no
interaction at such a high level.'
It should be remembered that Mr Kazimirov was suspended from his former
position on insistence of Azerbaijan. Mr Kazimirov, the protege of the
ex-defence minister of Russia Pavel Grachev, was not interested in
elimination of the antagonism and all the proposals that he used to make
only served the ends of the Armenian side.
The president of Azerbaijan did not mind openly Mr Kazimirov's being in
the delegation, although it is felt in Azerbaijan that this person may
spoil everything. Musavat's secretary Arif Hajiyev believes 'Mr Kazimirov
did not offer anything useful at the time, and Russia demonstrated that it
is not interested to have the problem solved by involving Mr Kazimirov in
the negotiations again. Clearly, Russia does not want to lose the chance
of pressurising Azerbaijan and Armenia.' It is believed in the PNFA that
Mr Kazimirov's return is designed to restore Russia's leadership of the
process.
Curiously, it was not long after the departure of the MG co-chairmen from
Yerevan and Karabakh that Armenia's foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan told
the press that Armenia still adhered to the three resolution principles.
These are the necessity of self-determination in Nagorno Karabakh,
security of its population and provision of geographical links with
Armenia.
Habarlar-L
WHAT BROUGHT MR KAZIMIROV TO BAKU?
BAKU, 15 DECEMBER, AZER-PRESS. Azeri political circles are worried by
Vladimir Kazimirov's involvement in the current negotiations about the
conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. A source said it was feared that Mr
Kazimirov might be made co-chairman of the Minsk Conference, the last
instance to resolve the conflict that will be gathered after the peace
treaty has been signed. Now, this position is occupied by Valentin
Lozinsky.
It is felt in Azerbaijan that should Mr Kazimirov take over from Mr
Lozinsky, this would mean that Russia demonstrates its negative attitude
towards possible resolution of the conflict.
Mr Kazimirov was the Russian co-chairman of the MG in 1992-1996 and put
forth the ideas that could not promote resolution; moreover, Mr
Kazimirov's proposals would aggravate the differences between negotiators.
Russia is not likely to have changed its attitude to the subject since.
Russia is still providing military assistance for Armenia thus violating
the balance in the region. However, the events in Chechnya make Russia
more cautious about how it deals with its neighbours in the Caucasus.
Mr Kazimirov told the press that 'he has nothing to do with replacement of
the Russian co-chairman in the OSCE MC so far (!).' Asked whether he
would be helping the co-chairman of the OSCE MG Nikolay Gribkov, Mr
Kazimirov answered: 'I shall help him if he needs my help, which it not
clear yet. As it is, I am legally on leave having recently completed my
diplomatic mission in Costa Rica.'
THE PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN MET THE OSCE MG
CO-CHAIRMEN
BAKU, 15 DECEMBER, AZER-PRESS. 'The international arena and the local
situation are favourable towards prompt resolution of Karabakh problem,'
said the OSCE MG chairman from France Jean-Jacques Gayard while meeting
with President Aliyev together with his colleagues from USA and Russia.
The co-chairmen of the Minsk Group last visited the region all together 13
months ago.
Azerbaijan then rejected the 'common state' proposal. In the opinion of
President Aliyev, the negotiation process have been delayed since and
there have not been any new ideas.
The presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been contacting directly
since April 1999, saying that they were ready to make necessary
compromises to resolve the confrontation.
According to President Aliyev, he and President Kocharyan were meeting to
help the OSCE MG find a solution; their dialogue does not mean that the
OSCE MG should be distanced from the parleys.
'My conversations with Mr Kocharyan will be continued, however, the OSCE
MG should become more actively involved in the new phase of its
intermediary endeavours,' said President Aliyev. He thinks that 'the OSCE
MG wants to build its new proposals on the direct negotiations between the
two presidents as a productive way of reaching the desired results.'
The co-chairmen agreed to meet at some later point to discuss new
proposals for resolution of the conflict with consideration of the
recommendations received from the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The co-chairmen said they were 'prepared to mobilise all the resources to
rehabilitate the territories damaged during the war' as allows the
cease-fire lasting for more than five years.
Representatives of IBRD, IMF, EBRD and UN attended the meeting of the
co-chairmen and the president.
Habarlar-L
ARMENIA RELEASES AZERBAIJANI POW.
As "a goodwill gesture," the Armenian authorities on 15 December
freed a 19-year-old Azerbaijani army conscript taken prisoner in
September 1998 on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
AP and ITAR-TASS reported. Armenia released three and Azerbaijan
four prisoners in September (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 and 20
September 1999). LF
RFE/RL
KARABAKH ARMY COMMANDER FIRED.
Arkadii Ghukasian, president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic, fired Samvel Babayan, commander of the Karabakh Defense
Army, on 17 December, RFE/RL's Stepanakert correspondent reported. Two
days earlier, a group of senior generals of the Defense Army
of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic issued a
statement accusing Ghukasian of exacerbating political
tensions, and calling on both the president and Babayan to
resign, Noyan Tapan and RFE/RL's Stepanakert correspondent
reported. Armenian Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian,
who traveled to Karabakh on 15 December, pledged support for
Ghukasian the following day (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report,"
Vol. 2, No. 50, 17 December 1999). An unknown number of
Karabakh parliamentary deputies and the heads of the
enclave's administrative districts issued similar statements
on 17 December, according to Noyan Tapan. LF
RFE/RL
Karabakh Leadership In Turmoil
The political leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh met for an emergency session on Thursday as a
bitter stand-off between the unrecognized
republic's President Arkady Ghukasian and the commander of its armed forces, General Samvel
Babayan, threatened to disrupt stability. Tension
in Stepanakert has run high since last Tuesday when Babayan was said to have assaulted
Karabakh's Prime Minister Anushavan Danielian, a
close ally of Ghukasian's.
Armenia's Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian arrived in Karabakh the next day in a bid to
prevent what is becoming a serious political
crisis there. Sources in Stepanakert told RFE/RL that Harutiunian has urged Babayan to resign
but was rebuffed by the latter.
Babayan has been at odds with Ghukasian since last June when the latter sacked the previous
head of the Karabakh government close to the
powerful general. With the help of the Armenian government, Ghukasian has since managed to
seriously limit the general's hitherto dominant
role in political affairs.
An uneasy status quo in Karabakh politics has been disrupted recently by a series of
recriminations exchanged by the two men. Tension came to
a head following Tuesday's brawl between Babayan and the Karabakh premier in which the
latter suffered minor injuries.
Senior commanders of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army brought a new twist in the
standoff on Wednesday when they issued a statement
saying that both Ghukasian and Babayan are to blame for the "dangerous political tension" and
must step down. The statement urged fresh
presidential elections as the only way to end the stalemate.
A spokesman for Ghukasian told RFE/RL that the Karabakh leader does not intend to resign. In
a statement released on Thursday, the Karabakh
government accused Babayan and his supporters of "resorting to provocative and violent acts."
Official sources quoted Defense Minister Harutiunian as throwing his weight behind the
embattled Karabakh president. "I agree with you and am
happy that our views coincide," Harutiunian said at a meeting with government members and
pro-Ghukasian parliamentarians, according to the
presidential press service.
In another development, 13 deputies of the Karabakh parliament supporting the Karabakh army
chief have demanded that the legislature meet for
an emergency session to discuss the situation. Local observers say they would try to impeach
Ghukasian. The parliament majority has so far
been loyal to the Karabakh president.
An emergency meeting of Karabakh's Security Council chaired by Ghukasian was still going on
as of late Thursday and no decisions were
announced by that time.
(Vahram Atanesian in Stepanakert)
RFE/RL
POWER STRUGGLE TURNS INCREASINGLY UGLY.
Armenia's most muscular political force, the Yerkrapah
[Country Defender] Union, has openly raised the issue
of removing the country's president, Robert Kocharian, from office.
Yerkrapah, an 8,000-strong paramilitary organization beholden to Vazgen
Sarkisian and his successors, is over-represented in the governing
Republican Party and dominates the territorial administrations, functioning
as the Defense Ministry's mechanism of control over the political system. At
the Yerkrapah congress on December 4, most delegates supported calls for
removing Kocharian and/or calling a pre-term presidential election in
2000--that is, only two years into Kocharian's term of office--with the
obvious intention of replacing him. Those demands did not figure in the
congress' official resolution, but were contained in the keynote speeches
and were received enthusiastically. The congress was equally receptive to
speakers' insinuations that Kocharian's entourage was the real beneficiary
of the October 27 massacre which took the life of, among others, Prime
Minister Vazgen Sarkisian.
The congress elected the late prime minister as "perpetual chairman" of
Yerkrapah and a new leadership filled with foes of Kocharian. These include
the new chairman Major-General Manvel Grigorian, three other Defense
Ministry officials of major general rank, as well as Industrial
Infrastructure Minister Vahan Shirkhanian and Yerevan mayor Albert Bazeian.
Shirkhanian and two of the generals had been among the Defense Ministry's
envoys who attempted to pressure Kocharian into appointing a
military-dominated government on October 27.
The congress also proclaimed the Yerkrapah Union's loyalty to the army, to
the memory of Vazgen Sarkisian and to the person of his brother and
successor as prime minister Aram Sarkisian, urged the nation to rally around
the military and the prime minister (without mentioning the president), and
officially called for "uncovering the organizers and executants" of the
October 27 "coup d'etat"--an allusion and a warning to the presidential
camp. The investigation is in the hands of the Chief Military Prosecutor
Khachik Jahangirian and the Internal Affairs Ministry's Criminal
Investigations chief Mushegh Saghatelian, two Yerkrapah members and
Sarkisian cronies, who are believed to consider implicating Kocharian's
entourage in the "plot" and the assassinations. On December 15, the military
prosecutor began questioning Kocharian's foreign policy adviser and close
personal associate, Aleksan Harutiunian. It remains unclear whether
Harutiunian's status is that of witness or suspect. Kocharian, under
pressure, had to release Harutiunian from his post and was reduced to
expressing the hope that the investigators would treat his departing aide in
accordance with due process of law. Only days earlier, Kocharian had given
vent to his concern that the military investigators may be pressing the
arrested terrorists into giving false testimony for political ends.
Kocharian has only few means to counterattack. He has held unsuccessful or
inconclusive meetings with the parliamentary leadership, business circles,
intelligentsia representatives and the Catholicos of All Armenians, Karekin
II, at the seat in Holy Echmiadzin. None of those forces seem to have
rallied behind him. Kocharian is basically limited to issuing infrequent,
albeit acerbic, statements through his spokesman Vahe Gabrielian for
broadcast on national television, whose management remains loyal to the
president. Any move by the Sarkisian camp to replace that management should
be taken as a coup alert.
On December 13, presidential chief of staff and Security Council Secretary
Serge Sarkisian (no relation to Vazgen and Aram) called a news conference to
warn Yerkrapah leaders and unspecified military commanders that he is in a
position to reveal their involvement in corruption and crime.
Simultaneously, a "spontaneous" demonstration was held outside the main
government building--Aram Sarkisian's seat of power--in Yerevan to protest
against the detention of an independent parliamentary deputy, whom the
investigators accuse of complicity with the October 27 assassins. Serge
Sarkisian is one of Kocharian's most reliable and skillful supporters, but
his real power has receded dramatically of late. He was a powerful Minister
of National Security and Internal Affairs until earlier this year, when
Vazgen Sarkisian deprived Serge of half his power by separating National
Security from Internal Affairs. Aram Sarkisian then completed his brother's
work by pressuring Kocharian to release Serge Sarkisian from the Internal
Affairs portfolio. Kocharian rewarded his ally with the two posts on the
presidential staff, from which redoubt Serge Sarkisian can selectively open
the files he has been keeping on the president's adversaries. But Yerkrapah
members and deputies of the governing Republican Party---two interlocked
organizations--lost no time retorting that they, too, hold "compromising
materials" against Kocharian's supporters, including Serge Sarkisian, whom
detractors accuse of controlling an undue share of export-import operations.
The "Karabakh clan" factor renders Kocharian's position even more difficult.
Public resentment has been building in Armenia proper against Karabakh
natives--such as Kocharian and Serge Sarkisian--who are seen as exercising a
disproportionate share of power in Yerevan and are even being blamed for the
economic hardships that the struggle for Karabakh has imposed on Armenia.
Kocharian has the support of only two small parties in Armenia proper, both
of them linked to the "Karabakh clan." One of those parties, "Country of
Laws," is led from the shadows by none other than Serge Sarkisian; the
other, Right and Accord, is led also covertly by Samvel Babaian from his
Stepanakert headquarters. Serge Sarkisian and Babaian, both holding
lieutenant-general rank, are a former commander and present commander,
respectively, of the Karabakh defense forces. In Armenia's political system,
political parties are essentially fronts for groups in the military and
security establishment and individual commanders. This applies to both camps
involved in the current power struggle and poses the risk of turning
political rivalry into armed confrontation (Noyan-Tapan, Snark, Azg,
Armenpress, Armenian Television, Respublika Armeniya, Golos Armenii,
December 6-16; see the Monitor, October 28, November 1, 3, 8, 18, 24; The
Fortnight in Review, November 5, December 3).
Habarlar-L
