Innovative Post-Conflict Reconstruction Study for Nagorno-Karabakh Territories of Azerbaijan Launched in Brussels

BRUSSELS and LONDON, June 25, 2011 -

- International Bank of
Azerbaijan Commits to Help Finance Reconstruction Estimated $60
Billion to Rehabilitate All Affected Territories

- Study Based on World Bank and EBRD Post-Conflict
Reconstruction Models

Latvian MEP Inese Vaidere held a dinner debate to present a new
study on the rehabilitation of Azerbaijan’s post-conflict
territories at the European Parliament on 20 June.  The
discussion completed a three capital cycle in London and
Washington.  The forward-looking study offers a “businessman’s
blueprint” for post-conflict reconstruction of the Nagorno-Karabakh
related territories.  The status of these territories and
their economic development remains unresolved since the 1988-1994
war between Armenia and Azerbaijan that left one-fifth of
Azerbaijan occupied by Armenian forces.  

The book, Basic Principles for the Rehabilitation of
Azerbaijan’s Post-Conflict Territories, is the undertaking of
an independent team of experts, economists and scholars led by Dr.
Eldar Ismailov, Chairman of the Baku and Stockholm-based Institute
for Strategic Studies of the Caucasus (ISSC) and former Opposition
Member of Parliament, Dr. Nazim Muzzafarli.  The International
Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) supported the research.  The new
study provides a sector-by-sector analysis and order of battle for
rehabilitation and reconstruction of $30 billion in basic
infrastructure and services for territories around
Nagorno-Karabakh.  Total reconstruction costs top $60 billion
by Government estimates for all affected territories.

“IBA commits itself with its international partners to helping
to finance reconstruction of the affected territories, if and when
that time comes,” stated Chairman of the International Bank of
Azerbaijan Dr. Jahangir Hajiyev in London.  ”We hope to see
the soonest possible start to reconstruction of the damaged areas
when the two sides have agreed.  The opportunity cost to all
the peoples of the region for social, economic and political
development has been too high,” he added.  The Caspian region
is recognized as the fastest growing trade corridor in the world.
 

Dr. S. Frederick Starr, Chairman of Johns Hopkins University’s
Central Asia and Caucasus Institute (CACI) and author of the book’s
introduction, explained that currently in these territories there
is little or no electricity, telecommunications, water, police and
other critical infrastructure and services vital to the return of
populations and economic development.  Alexandros Peterson,
Research Director at the Henry Jackson Society, warned that
unaddressed, the conflict region could become a larger haven for
the export of instability, drug trafficking and other threats to
regional political and economic stability.

London launch host, Lord Waverley, Chairman of the Central Asia
All-Party Parliamentary Group at Westminster, urged “a balanced
hearing of issues on both sides of the conflict which may be
resolvable” and “modicum of common sense.”  Co-host Lady
Barbara Judge, Chair of the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS)’s Middle East Institute Advisory Council, asked if there
were additional good auspices in the EU, think tanks and research
organizations that could broaden communications.  

CONTACT: Lyndsay Howard, PANGAEIA Communications, href="mailto:lh@pangaeia.com">lh@pangaeia.com US
+1-203-542-7777 and UK +44-207-7321-3900

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