Azerbaijan Raises Profile of Conflict With Armenia
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
Tension on the Korean Peninsula, discord between Israelis and Palestinians and the crisis in Darfur are well-known conflicts whose developments are reported in a timely fashion and are often discussed around the world.
Azerbaijan is also in the midst of a conflict, with its neighbor Armenia, and the country is trying to raise its profile.
Last week, the Azerbaijan Embassy in Seoul held a press conference during which diplomats distributed copies of a report on the ``Nagorny Karabakh conflict,'' originally addressed to the United Nations secretary general.
``We'd like more people know about the conflict," Vagif Jafarov, the second secretary of the embassy, said as to why his government decided to distribute the report. He added that the dissemination wasn't just for Koreans: All Azerbaijan foreign missions abroad have been instructed to do the same.
The region of Nagorny Karabakh, which is now a deadlocked territory, once belonged to Azerbaijan. The conflict traces back to the 19th century, when the region was absorbed into the Russian Empire.
With the 1917 Russian Revolution, Azerbaijan and Armenia both declared their independence, with Armenia pushing its campaign to take control of Karbakh. This led Karbakh to declare the establishment of Nagorny Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), an autonomous region within the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic.
In 1989, the Armenian parliament decided to annex the region on the claim that it had become populated by a significant amount of Armenian inhabitants. Azerbaijan called the Armenian decision ``a move grossly violating international laws and norms of conduct" following in the footsteps of Nazi Germany, which had annexed German-populated areas of the neighboring countries on the eve of the Second World War.
A clash between the two countries occurred in the early 1990s, leaving more than 18,000 people dead, many more wounded, and facilities looted and ruined.
The clash was the beginning of long-standing tension that still lingers. Jafarov insists the sovereignty of the autonomous region must be restored. The Armenian Embassy in Beijing was not available for comment.
The U.N. Security Council, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe and other international organizations involved are all involved in a settlement process.
Several U.N. resolutions have been announced, but have failed to end the conflict.
The two countries also met for direct talks intended to end the conflict, which bore no fruit.