Thomas de Waal: As ever, Karabakh conflict is ‘spoiler’
The release of joint statement on the 10th anniversary of the Eastern Partnership unfortunately was blocked by Baku as it featured no reference to “territorial integrity.” Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine would also have liked this but were prepared to live without it, an expert on the South Caucasus, Thomas de Waal said on Twitter, commenting on the downgrading of a celebratory statement marking the anniversary of the partnership.
The expert states the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict is ‘spoiler as ever’, explaining: “Omit reference to “territorial integrity” and you offend Az, mention it, you offend Armenia. This has been going at least since 1996 OSCE Lisbon Summit. Old protracted conflict not only hurts locals, it's a poison seeping far beyond.”
De Waal said in another tweet that the new bilateral “strategic agreement” with Azerbaijan is not yet complete and Azerbaijan evidently ‘wants language’ on the Karabakh conflict in coming bilateral agreement. Meanwhile, the European Union has been advised against going beyond support of the OSCE Karabakh peace mediation.
“More broadly, EU should rediscover its agility in dealing with post-Soviet conflicts-not just NK, but Abkhazia, S. Ossetia, Transdniestria. Each is different, requires a different EU role. (Ukraine conflicts, where role of Moscow is fundamental are different again),” he tweeted.
The expert believes that the EU needs not to lose sight of wider geopolitical imperative of conflict resolution in Eastern neighbourhood. “A decade ago this was a higher priority,” he said.
I'm at #Eap10. Some thoughts on conflicts
— Thomas de Waal (@Tom_deWaal) May 14, 2019
1. Release of joint statement on 10th anniversary of #EasternPartnership unfortunately blocked by Baku as no reference to “territorial integrity.” Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine would also have liked this but were prepared to live without it.
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