A FLAWED APPROACH

Whatever the reasons behind the formation in the Lithuanian Seimas of a group of friendship with Nagornyy Karabakh, official Vilnius has been fairly quick to count the negative consequences of this move in its relations with Azerbaijan. The Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius, who visited Baku last week, said that the new Lithuanian parliament had made a mistake when it set up a group of friendship with Nagoryy Karabakh. He explained the MPs' decision by the fact that they had not yet realized the power of their words and actions. At the same time, Vilnius unconditionally supports Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.

Flirting with the Nagornyy Karabakh separatists has already caused a negative reaction within the Lithuanian Seimas. Initially there were 12 people in the group, but then two MPs decided to withdraw from it. And eight out of the ten members of this group are also members of the Armenian-Lithuanian Inter-parliamentary Group of Deputies.

It is a cause for regret that this short-sighted decision was adopted in the parliament of a country which this July will head the European Union. And both Lithuania and the EU recognize Nagornyy Karabakh as an inalienable part of Azerbaijan. International law also demands this. Accordingly, friendship between the Lithuanian deputies and the separatist Armenians cannot be deemed to be conforming to international law.

In an interview with R+ the Lithuanian MP Egidijus Vareikis said that the Fatherland Union-Christian Democrats also condemns the decision of a number of deputies to set up a group of friendship with Nagornyy Karabakh. "It is our opinion that Nagornyy Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory; Abkhazia and Ossetia belong to Georgia and the Dniestr Region belongs to Moldova. I have said as much to the Armenians.  We recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and other countries within the context of universally accepted borders. Therefore we have categorically stated the impermissibility of contacts with unrecognized self-proclaimed republics," Vareikis said.

He pointed out that the European countries had no conception of how vitally important the question of Nagornyy Karabakh is for Azerbaijan. "We have spoken about this with the speaker of the Lithuanian parliament and heads of committees and commissions of the Seimas. Naturally, the question of inter-parliamentary relations with Karabakh has been excluded. But the friendship group was still set up. We are trying to explain to our deputies the negative consequences of this move internationally for Lithuania," the MP said.

That said, in setting up this group its members restricted themselves to the salutary title of "friendship with Nagornyy Karabakh", thereby leaving room for manoeuvre.

The head of the Society of Azerbaijanis of Lithuania, Mahir Hamzayev, told R+ that all that was necessary to set up the parliamentary group was for 6-7 deputies to call a meeting and announce this at a plenary session. Although some members of the Seimas have spoken about the liquidation of this friendship group, according to Hamzayev, on the Lithuanian parliament's official website there is a page about the activities of deputies of this group.

In his opinion, there are a number of reasons for the sudden surge of love of the Lithuanian deputies for the separatists in Nagornyy Karabakh. Back in the Soviet period the leaders of the Lithuanian nationalist movement "Sajudis" supported separatism in Nagornyy Karabakh and, specifically, such odious organizations as "Krunk" and the "Karabakh" committee. The Lithuanians needed a precedent to secede from the USSR. And they saw the NKAR's possible secession from Azerbaijan as just such a precedent.

On the other hand, the Lithuanians believe that they were subjected to genocide during the partisan war of the "forest brothers" against Soviet power. Hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians were arrested or deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. There is even a Seimas committee for the mass annihilation of the Lithuanians during the Soviet period. And in this context they express their sympathy for the Armenians as a people who met with the same fate in Ottoman Turkey. Hamzayev said that the Azerbaijani diaspora and embassy are currently involved in resolving the question with the scandalous group of friendship with Nagornyy Karabakh in the Seimas.

Meanwhile, we managed to have a word with a member of the so-called group of friendship with Nagornyy Karabakh, Kestas Komskis. In an interview for R+ he noted that the creation of such a group with the unrecognized formation has no political context whatsoever. "This decision has no political context. We are not planning on going to Karabakh or meeting with the leaders of this region. We have simply declared our friendly attitude to Nagornyy Karabakh. And that's all!" Komskis said, claiming that it was nothing more than a declaration. One wonders on what such a declared friendship of the deputies of an EU country for an unrecognized separatist formation rests and what the point of it is. Komskis' reply to the question as to whether he recognizes Karabakh as Azerbaijani territory confuses the situation even more: "Yes. Something like that."

Generally speaking, the development of events and the opinion of the Lithuanian political establishment show that the creation of such a group of friendship with the occupying regime in Karabakh was a mistake. Lithuania is still an active participant in the European and world processes and will head the EU Council in the second half of 2013. This means that every foreign political move must be carefully calculated. But in any event such a move should serve as a warning to the Azerbaijani diaspora in Lithuania which may very confidently stand against the Armenian lobby in the light of the community of interests of Azerbaijan and Lithuania.