Azeri president sees similarity in Ukrainian, Karabakh conflicts
The conflict in Ukraine and that between Armenia and Azerbaijan are "mirror reflections" of one another, says Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan.
"Had the Armenian-Azeri conflict been resolved, Ukraine might not have faced this conflict now, because here the same scenario is taking place: the same violation of territorial integrity, the same result, occupation, separatism. It is as if they were mirror reflections of one another," Aliyev said during a panel discussion titled "Beyond Ukraine - Unresolved Conflicts in Europe" at the 51st Munich Security Conference last Saturday.
The Armenian-Azeri conflict stayed in the shadow of other important international events, but the Ukrainian issue attracted some attention, he said.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has been mediating the Armenian-Azeri conflict for years but with no result, he said. "OSCE has an ad hoc team dealing with this conflict. It is called the Minsk Group and co-chaired by three permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: Russia, France and the United States. This group has been functioning for more than 22 years now but no results have been achieved," Aliyev said.