2016-04-25 15:46:00

Nagorno Karabakh: an unresolved conflict


(Vatican Radio) The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh territory again made headlines, following an outbreak of violence on the front line.

Earlier this month, the first major show of violence for more than a decade occurred since the 1994 ceasefire, established at the end of the Karabakh war, which saw more than 30,000 people killed. At least 200 people, including civilians, have been killed this month, with tensions continuing to mount. Azerbaijan views the region as having formed part of a very Muslim space despite the local Armenian majority.

Georgia Gogarty spoke to Laurence Broers, an associate fellow at the Russia Eurasia program at Chatham House, the Royal Institute for International Affairs, to find out more about the current situation and what caused the violence to occur.

Listen:

When asked about why the violence has started again, Broers explained that since the end of the war in 1994, there has never been an enforced peace treaty but rather a ceasefire mandate. During the end of the 1990s and into the mid-2000s there have been several attempts at peace under the Minsk group however they haven’t “delivered any tangible results”. The ceasefire is unusual in itself as it is “self-regulated and there are no peace keepers on the ground”.

The situation is “increasingly unstable” according to Broers. Over the last few years violations of the ceasefire have been getting a lot worse and more substantial in terms of scale. There are 40,000 soldiers on the frontline with heavier and more sophisticated weaponry. Since the mid-2000s, Azerbaijan has become an oil rich republic, and Broers suggests the state is using this “oil wind force” to “rearm itself”, subsequently creating a “more combustible situation on the ground”. He says that there “is nothing surprising about the recent escalation” in violence.

Broers expressed his concern at the lack of “energized peace process” saying that there needs to be more international attention and focus on the situation in order to resolve the situation. The conflict can be viewed as a sign of Azerbaijan’s “exasperation with a dysfunctional peace process”. The recent increase in violence is a message that “this isn’t and shouldn’t be a frozen conflict”.

Broers says that the recent violence acts as a reminder of the “terrible massacres in the earlier war that have never been dealt with”. He suggests that as long as the situation is not resolved both sides “are living with a fear of more massacres of ethnic cleansing”. 








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