By Emil Danielyan
Russia, the United States and other major Western powers have declined to endorse a clause in a UN resolution that upheld Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian Foreign Ministry revealed on Monday. Armenia was again left alone in openly opposing the amendment to the text of the resolution dealing with the United Nations’ cooperation with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It was passed by the UN General Assembly on Friday.
Official Yerevan sought to put a brave face on the development, arguing that only 37 UN member states voted for the document, while almost 150 other nations either abstained or were absent. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the pro-Azerbaijani clause was mainly backed by Muslim countries, including neighboring Turkey and Iran.
Neighboring Georgia and several other former Soviet Union also voted for it.
The U.S., Russia, Britain, France, Germany and all other members of the European Union chose to abstain. The Armenian government interpreted their stance as a “negative attitude towards Azerbaijani attempts to exploit this authoritative UN body.” “The number of states supporting Azerbaijani proposals has been falling every year,” the foreign ministry statement said.
Also abstaining were Islamic nations such as Algeria, Egypt and Indonesia. Saudi Arabia was among those 48 countries that did not vote at all.
The original version of the UN resolution drafted by the OSCE’s rotating presidency contained no controversial wording on Karabakh, according to the Armenian Foreign Ministry. The OSCE has tried to avoid such statements since Armenia vetoed a clause referring to Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan at an OSCE summit in Lisbon in 1996.