November 25, 2011 - 17:07 AMT
Expert names Karabakh fatigue among reasons for EU passivity

There are several reasons for EU passivity in Karabakh settlement, according to Research Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, co-founder of the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm.

“One of the reasons is that France would like to maintain its supremacy as a European country in Minsk Group alongside Russia and the US. Another one is the internal problems of the EU: if you look at the entire policy, the whole existence of the EU is questionable for financial and economic reasons, which make this a bad time to enter into a sort of engagement in its eastern neighbourhood,” Svante Cornell noted.

“We should not expect very much in the near future unless there is a bog crisis in the region to force the international community to act.

Also, there is what you can call the Karabakh fatigue; time goes by and the status quo is more accepted,” the expert said.

“The conflict is not frozen and that is the problem. I think what happened in the past two years is that the US have sent the signal to Azerbaijan that this is not the priority and please accept that this is not going to be priority. Azerbaijan had a choice between accepting it or doing something about it, which meant Baku's escalating of conflict, and that's what Baku did,” the expert concluded.