BAKU, Azerbaijan (RFE/RL)—Azerbaijan on Friday criticized Kyrgyzstan for refusing to fully back a joint declaration by Muslim states that voices support for Baku’s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), a loose grouping of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and six other Central Asian nations, adopted the declaration at a summit held in Islamabad on Wednesday.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry revealed that the Kyrgyz president refused to sign “political provisions” of the document.
One of them calls for a resolution of the Karabakh conflict that would be based on “the principles of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a clear reference to Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
“Kyrgyzstan’s position is absolutely incomprehensible,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hikmet Hajiyev, told the Trend news agency. “Such a position raises the serious question of into whose hands it plays.”
Like Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and two other former Soviet republics aligned in the ECO — Kazakhstan and Tajikistan — are members of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). They have repeatedly signed pro-Azerbaijani declarations by Muslim and Turkic states in the past, prompting strong criticism from Armenia.
The CSTO heads of state issued a different statement on the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute when they met in Yerevan in October last year. The statement backed the U.S., Russian and French mediators’ pursuit of a Karabakh settlement based not only on territorial integrity of states but also peoples’ right to self-determination. The latter principle has long been championed by Armenia.
Bravo Kyrgyzstan. Nice to see a common sense Turkic nation among the masses.
The fact that this can be construed as Muslim against Christian should be exploited. Who cares what they think. Strengthen the Armenian army. Unify as One.
Muslim world united against Armenia