Azerbaijan, Baku, May 27/ Trend , V.Zhavoronkova, E.Ostapenko /
Kazakhstan's chairmanship to the OSCE in 2010 will unlikely significantly affect the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, experts consider.
"Kazakhstan will not be actively involved in the solution of conflicts, since firstly it does not want to assume great responsibility; and secondly - currently the Caucasus region is not a priority for Kazakhstan," said Kazakh expert Dosim Satpayev.
It is planned that in 2010 Kazakhstan will assume chairmanship to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - the world's largest regional security organizations. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - have been holding the peace negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, but they are still unsuccessful.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Observers laid their trust in Kazakhstan, as the OSCE chairman, which may also mediate in the conflict settlement.
However, the experts are skeptical that the country's chairmanship - a stable economic partner of Azerbaijan, a neighbor of the Republic in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - can somehow affect the solution of this conflict.
"Despite that the Minsk Group is the structure of the OSCE, the role of the OSCE chairman has limited opportunities to directly influence the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement," Azerbaijani political scientist Rasim Musabeyov told Trend .
However, Musabeyov said that Kazakhstan has first-hand knowledge of the conflict and about all its complexities.
In early 1990, along with Russia, the country initiated the establishment of the mediation mission, which was called "Zheleznovodsk initiative". However, this did not bring adequate results.
Mediatory role of Kazakhstan, as the chairman, is useful to facilitate this process, "but I would not exaggerate," the Director of the European Neighborhood, Foreign and Security Policy programme of the Center for European Policy Studies, Emerson told Trend in a telephone conversation from Brussels.
Unlikely the Republic will be actively involved in solving the problem of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, experts think.
Despite the opinion of European expert Michael Emerson that chairing Kazakhstan will try to reach a solution, other experts doubt it.
"I do not think that when Kazakhstan will chair the OSCE, it will want to more actively intervene in the processes that we are now observing in the Caucasus," Director of Risk Assessment Group (Kazakhstan) Satpayev told Trend by telephone from Astana.
He said that Kazakhstan does not want to spoil relations with either Azerbaijan or Armenia, and it is important to maintain the normal partnership relations with all the Caucasus nations.
In addition, according to experts, to resolve the conflict is not an easy task.
The co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group - France, United States and Russia, are more powerful and much better able to resolve this conflict than Kazakhstan, Musabeyov said.
And if their mediation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement has no clear progress, it is unworthy to wait for it from Astana, he said.
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