NATO not to intervene in Karabakh conflict- expert
14.07.2012,
04:55
NATO is very unlikely to react to the possible escalation of situation around Karabakh conflict, Anna Shelest, leading research associate at Odessa Regional Branch of the National Institute of Strategic Studies, said in online interview with Novosti-Armenia within Caucasus Journalists Network.
YEREVAN, July 14. /ARKA/. NATO is very unlikely to react to the possible escalation of situation around Karabakh conflict, Anna Shelest, leading research associate at Odessa Regional Branch of the National Institute of Strategic Studies, said in online interview with Novosti-Armenia within Caucasus Journalists Network.
“If one of its allies will not be threatened, such as Turkey, NATO will not react. We can just expect some political statements rather than some active reaction as it was during Russian-Georgian conflict,” she added.
Shelest also noted that NATO has never intervened into the peaceful process in Karabakh.
“There are OSCE and recently EU to do this mission,” she clarified.
Interview with experts, analysts and political figures is organized for journalists from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia within “Security in South Caucasus and NATO” project. The project of Research Center Region (Armenia) is supported by Public Diplomacy Department of NATO (Brussels).
As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the Karabakh’s government, the Armenian majority voted in 1991, December 10, to secede from Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the enclave the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. Full-scale fighting, initiated by Azerbaijan, erupted in the late winter of 1992. International mediation by several groups including Europe's OSCE’s failed to bring an end resolution that both sides could work with.
In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself. By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also held and currently control seven regions beyond the administrative borders of Nagorno-Karabakh. Almost 1 million people on both sides have been displaced as a result of the conflict. A Russian- -brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan. E.O.-0-
