03/07/2013 14:42
Why does Azerbaijan speculate on Sarsang reservoir?
At various meetings held recently, Azerbaijan has tried to present the safety of Sarsang reservoir in the north of Artsakh as an urgent issue, calling the reservoir a potential danger to six Azerbaijani regions. During the latest sitting of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, the Azerbaijani delegation tried to include a resolution on the indicated issue in the agenda and held a vote on it, but the attempt failed thanks to efforts of Armenian delegates. What is the reason for such activity?
First, following the 2011 meeting in Kazan when Azerbaijan made ten new proposals and torpedoed the adoption of a document on the fundamental principles, that country was pressured by the international community and the destructive position showed up.
In order to back out of the situation, Azerbaijan tried to imitate an initiative side by making various proposals. In particular, after the Kazan meeting Azerbaijan launched an initiative for evading the drafting a document on the fundamental principles and the start of drafting a Great Peace Agreement. Then the head of the Oil Company of Azerbaijan began talking about the export of natural gas to Armenia and later the Azerbaijani side began actively speaking about the safety of the Sarsang reservoir.
Secondly, if the resolution presented at the sitting of Euronest were of humanitarian nature and if Azerbaijan wanted to cooperate with Nagorno Karabakh on these issues, it would not accentuate such expressions in the resolution as “occupied territories” and “withdrawal of Armenian troops”.
An attempt to profit from the word “humanitarian” is obvious in the abovementioned resolution. Years ago the Karabakh side proposed cooperating on joint use of water resources, which envisaged that Artsakh would provide water from the Sarsang reservoir for Azerbaijani regions adjacent to the northeast of Artsakh, while Azerbaijan was to open the beds of the rivers which flowed to Karabakh in the past, but in the 1990s Azerbaijan changed the riverbeds in order to deprive Armenian villages of irrigation water.
In the same resolution, Azerbaijan tries to show that it is concerned about the security of residents of Azerbaijani villages adjacent to Artsakh. But if we take into account the fact that residents of that area have been deprived of irrigation water for two decades, while Azerbaijan rejected Artsakh’s proposal on cooperation and provision of irrigation water to those regions, everything becomes clear.
Thirdly, by raising issues not related to the negotiating process and presenting them as important issues, Azerbaijan is trying to stray from the essence of the process. So an impression is created that Azerbaijan tries to find solutions and do its best for the problem’s resolution, but in reality it appears that Azerbaijan, while ignoring the priority issues, raises issues which have nothing to do with the negotiating process. It means that because of active efforts of Azerbaijan, the sides are moving away from the opportunity to reach an agreement.