Get ready for an Azerbaijani-Armenian scrum at the United Nations when the General Assembly convenes in mid-September. Azerbaijan is working to gather support for a resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
A draft of the resolution calls for the return of Azerbaijani displaced persons to Karabakh and adjacent areas currently controlled by Armenia. It also calls on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to conduct a probe into possible humanitarian law violations in the conflict zone. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev briefed diplomats from Islamic states on the measure in late August in Baku.
Baku is counting on support from the 57 member states of the Organization of The Islamic Conference for its Karabakh resolution. Armenian officials say they have sufficient diplomatic clout to block the measure in the General Assembly.
A similar draft resolution proposed by Azerbaijan in 2008 stalled at the General Assembly. Most voting members abstained when the measure came up for a vote, including the United States, Russia and France, the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group, the OSCE entity overseeing the Karabakh peace process.
Officials in Yerevan have described Azerbaijan’s initiative as counterproductive in the search for a lasting Karabakh peace settlement.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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