"AN IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR THE WORLD"

Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, hosted the Third Global Open Society Forum on 28-29 April. Many members of the world's political elite attended the forum. One of the participants in the forum, former president of Poland (1995-2005) Aleksandr Kwasniewski, answered questions put by Regionplus on the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict and the impact of the current international situation on the process of resolving it.

-When welcoming the participants to the Baku forum, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev spoke about the crisis in international relations, about the world being ruled by double standards, as a result of which opinions are divided on the problems of conflicts like the one in Nagornyy Karabakh, for example.

- I absolutely agree with what Mr Aliyev said at the forum. One of the most important principles according to which we should live and further our relations is not only based on international laws, but on the territorial integrity of countries. But that cannot be changed unilaterally. This was the case with Nagornyy Karabakh, and this is how it was with Crimea. Now the following question is being posed to all the major countries in the UN Security Council: "What needs to be done about this problem?" Either we allow this to be done or we don't. If we don't, then we need to resolve all the problems with which we have been faced over the last few years. But this is not just one conflict. This does of course pose the very important question to the world of how do we get back and retain territorial integrity.

- At the same time, the Nagornyy Karabakh problem is not stopping Azerbaijan from continuing to develop. The country is moreover a leading one in its rates of economic growth. How do you see the future of Azerbaijan in the light of the long drawn-out problem of freeing a fifth of the country's territory from occupation?

- I have no doubt that Azerbaijan will go on developing. This is quite clear to anyone who is a good politician - and I permit myself to say that I am not a bad politician. You have good resources here. I was last here 10 years ago. During my stay in Baku I have strolled around the streets and seen how the city has developed. There is a feeling of great potential, the streets are full of young people. You can feel that, although they don't perhaps hold out much hope for change, they are confident about their future. I have no doubt that Azerbaijan will benefit from political stability since it possesses such resources.

Naturally, the international situation and various regional conflicts may interfere with that, among them the Ukrainian conflict, which, as you can see, will go on for a long time, because there I do not envisage any rapid way out of the situation that has taken shape.

As far as Nagornyy Karabakh is concerned... You know, I took part in those talks and thought that we were close to a solution. But so many years have passed, and nothing new has happened. So, I can't really say anything optimistic about this. For the moment I think that the diplomats will work to try and achieve a solution in the future. At the same time, millions of refugees will experience big problems… But what is to be done? For all that, it is good that war is not being waged, that there are no casualties. That is better than what it was like at the very beginning.

- Official Baku has repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction with the fact that the leadership of the European Union and the individual member-countries unambiguously condemn the separatists in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, but at the same do not have the same approach to separatism in Azerbaijan.

Nobody wants to openly call the invader an occupier as they do with relation to other countries. Surely this is because they don't want to "offend" Armenia?

- I think this is the main reason. No-one wants to do this, in the belief that these long talks, which have lasted more than 20 years now will eventually bring some kind of result. I don't think you can blame the diplomats for that of course, but primarily the belief in dialogue and not using these kind of assessments.

On the other hand, I assisted that dialogue during my term in office as president, but I do not see any progress being made and feel rather awkward about that. I would very much like to believe that diplomacy will be successful.

-The "Eastern Partnership" summit is coming up in [the Latvian capital] Riga. Azerbaijan believes that the European Union needs to employ a different approach to the states that are a party to this project, depending on the foreign political guide-lines, the state of the economy and factors like that. As former president of a country which was one of the initiators of the idea of a rapprochement between the European Union and its eastern neighbours, what do you think about this particular stand?

- I think that the viewpoints coincide here. There was never any idea that the European Union should conduct an equal dialogue with all the partners in the East. Naturally, you cannot compare the position of Azerbaijan today with that of Belarus, for example. The possibilities of the two countries are quite different.

I took part in the last "Eastern Partnership" summit in Vilnius. Several documents were signed there, but the European Union signed them with different countries which wanted to cooperate on that level. Naturally, the level and content of these agreements varied.

Azerbaijan is a very interesting partner. I absolutely agree with the president of Azerbaijan that now, when we are talking about energy security in the world, Azerbaijan is providing Europe with a golden opportunity, because everything that applies to Russia remains the same. In this sense, we do of course understand that Europe will not be able to live without Russian gas. But Azerbaijan is offering new opportunities, because you discovered gas here and, if there is a good infrastructure, it will be possible to sell it to Europe.

I think that there are many important elements, which should help to further speed up the development of relations between the European Union and Azerbaijan.