ABSTRACT: From the speech made at the second session of the Congress by Raffaelli (Socialist Party), former Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, member of the Radical Party Assembly of Parliamentarians, and Chairman of the Peace Conference for Nagorny Karabach on the mandate of the CSCE.

(THE NEW PARTY, MARCH 1993)

The importance and scale of the conflict in Nagorny Karabach deserves much more attention from the international press. It is, in fact, an important conflict, not only because of the inexpressible suffering which it has caused, but also because it involves hostility based on ethnic differences. It has caused a major breakdown in commercial relations between the countries involved most directly, from Armenia to Azerbaijan.

It threatens to lead to the destabilization of the entire Caucasian area and to the involvement, in a potentially frightening escalation, of countries which have direct or indirect interests in the area - Turkey and Iran in particular, but also Russia.

In the history of the CSCE, we are faced with the first attempt to measure its efficacy through the direct management of crises and their prevention.

With the end of the two-power world order and the language which belonged to this logic,we have also seen the end of a certain capacity (though it may have been based on an iniquitous balance) to keep conflicts under control, or at least to manage them when they broke out. We must escape from the new situation of disorder by creating a situation based on a consensual balance, with the participation of populations and not only of governments. The main areas in which crises are occuring are those in which the problems that emerge from the passage from consolidated regimes to other forms of government are added to by problems in relations between different nationalities and ethnic groups, in a situation in which the general line is a new politicization of ethnic "belonging", almost as a primordial refuge, as a search for roots in a disorderly world. This feeling should not be condemned out of hand. It should, on the contrary, be managed, by creating political, and especially cultural situations in which differe

nce is a form of richness, an aspect to be made use of rather than a reason for conflict with those who are different from ourselves. To achieve this we need culture, dialogue, tolerance, and the creation of national and international instruments for the management of situations of this type.

The involvement of the European countries in the long crisis in Nagorny Karabach has often been negative, with unkept promises and the pursuit of national interests in the face of these weaker peoples.

It is extremely important that the efforts made within the international organizations be accompanied by a political and cultural attention such as only patient and continuous effort can achieve. For this reason, occasions such as the transnational Congress of the Radical Party are of fundamental importance.