Minsk Group should push Azerbaijan to withdraw the draft resolution: Michael Kambeck

European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA), a Brussels-based NGO, has issued a call upon the EU countries to vote against the Azerbaijani initiative in the UN General Assembly over the Nagorno Karabakh issue but the position of not all EU countries on this issue is clear yet. In an exclusive interview with local Armenian business daily Capital EuFoA Secretary General Michael Kambeck explains why the EU must have a common stance on the Azerbaijani initiative in UN.

- Mr Kambeck, what European Friends of Armenia do to bring EU countries into a common position on this issue?

- We issued this call precisely because of that reason. With this call, we alerted the EU capitals, their foreign ministries and their delegates in Brussels and also to the relevant decision makers at the EU level that they should look into this matter and co-ordinate their positions. The EU always strives to have a common opinion and co-ordinated actions at the UN level, but this works very well only for the bigger issues, like Iran, Afghanistan. Our call intended to point out how important this particular initiative is and why the EU should best respond with a common response. Let me add that still we cannot be sure that such a common approach is politically possible for 27 countries, but our message is very clear and at least the capitals now understand exactly what is at risk.

- Once the UN resolution is taken, Azerbaijan will continue trying to gain similar documents on other international forums, which is detrimental for the NK peace negotiations under the OSCE mandate. How do you believe the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries can encounter Azerbaijani initiatives to make it respect the current format of negotiations?

- Azerbaijan cannot pursue these tactics forever. Each time they act in this way, they show that they are not really interested in a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Their war threats add to this bad image and further weaken their negotiating position. Even if they gain something in a different forum, it will only hamper the process under the Minsk Group. I think that the OSCE Minsk Group should push Azerbaijan to withdraw the draft resolution. If Azerbaijan really wants to walk away from the Minsk Group-led negotiations, they will first lose all moral high ground and then see that the possible solutions to this conflict will anyway come back to something very similar to the Madrid Principles, including a binding free expression of will in Karabakh. The only thing that a change of the negotiating forum would bring is more uncertainty, more loss of time, and a higher risk of an outbreak of violence. This is in nobody's interest.

- Baku and Belgrade believe they will gain each other's support on any issue that concerns the principle of territorial integrity, as they are convinced the NK and Kosovo issues are similar from the point of international law. Is it worth for Armenia and organisations supporting Armenian cause to support viewing these two issues on similar platform?

- NK and Kosovo have some points in common and many points which differentiate them. As is true for all conflict areas, there will have to be a specific political solution tailored to the needs of the population concerned and the political sensitivities. The Minsk Group is working on exactly such a solution. Only the basic principles apply to all conflicts: non-use of force, territorial integrity and the right to self-determination. Armenia is on the right track to support these three principles, while Azerbaijan until today only wants to apply one. Azerbaijan seems to forget that Russia, the USA and France or the EU will never accept any solution which is not based on all three principles, no matter what forum Azerbaijan would like to appeal to or who would lead peace negotiations.