ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...

PERINA: Nagorno-Karabakh is the most significant conflict still in the Caucasus and the
most dangerous unresolved conflict that broke out when Soviet Union dissolved. It
actually has far older roots and a complex history and the conflict started even before the
Soviet Union broke up. But the worst fighting took place roughly from 1991 to 1994
between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It was a bloody war, and the casualty figures are
disputed but probably were about 20,000 killed and 60,000 wounded, with close to a
million refugees. Even though Nagorno-Karabakh itself only had a population of about
200,000, the refugees came from Armenians who fled Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis
displaced from Armenia. It was a serious war. The region of Nagorno-Karabakh itself
had a majority Armenian population but was made an autonomous oblast in Azerbaijan
by Stalin in 1923. As the Soviet Union weakened, the Armenian population did not want
to remain within Azerbaijan and declared independence in 1991. This led to the war
which really then became a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The worst fighting stopped with a ceasefire in 1994, and the Armenians have since then
controlled both Nagorno-Karabakh and a large area of land around it as well. Until the
conflict is somehow resolved, the international community considers that Nagorno-
Karabakh is still a part of Azerbaijan, and that is U.S. policy as well. No country, not
even Armenia, has thus far recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent country. So
that is the situation on the ground.
Now as for the mediation mechanism, the organization that has been tasked from the very
beginning to try to help find a solution is the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, the OSCE, and specifically a sub-group of countries called the Minsk Group.
The Minsk Group in turn agreed on countries referred to as the “Co-Chairs” of the Minsk
Group to serve as specific mediators to help the two sides find a solution. For a long time
the Co-Chairs were Russia and Sweden but then that arrangement was changed in 1997,
and a troika of Co-Chairs was agreed upon from France, Russia and the United States. So
that is the history in a nutshell. I was appointed as the U.S. representative to the Minsk
Group and thus one of the three Co-Chair mediators. The French and the Russians also
appointed Ambassadors approximately at my level but interestingly the Russians also had
a First Deputy Foreign Minister who took an interest in the conflict and participated in
many of the trips and negotiating sessions. Thus the Russians often had the most senior
delegation member among the Co-Chairs because they had a person who was number
two or three in the Foreign Ministry.
Q.: Who was this?
PERINA: His name was Vyacheslav Trubnikov, and he was appointed First Deputy
Foreign Minister in 2000. He later became the Russian Ambassador to India. I spent a lot
of time with him and got to know him quite well. One of the interesting things about him
was that he worked in the Foreign Ministry but during Soviet times had actually been a
KGB officer. He freely admitted this and made no effort to hide it. He was in fact proud
that he had risen to the level of Colonel in the KGB.
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