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Table of Contents Letter from the Secretary-General 2 Letter From the Directors 3 Statement of the Problem 4 History of the Committee 5 History of the Conflict 6 Current Situation 9 Past Actions 10 Bloc Positions 13 Questions a Resolution Must Answer 14 Suggestions for further research 15 Position Paper Guidelines 15 Disclaimer on Committee Dynamics 16 Closing Remarks 17 Bibliography 17 1 Letter from the Secretary-General Dear Delegates and Faculty Advisors, It is my honor and pleasure to welcome you all to the 8th edition of Newton College Model United Nations! My name is Alvaro Estrella and I will be acting as the secretary-general of this edition! I am a second year IB Diploma student at Newton College looking to major in Computer Science in the near future. Please do not feel confused if you have seen versions of myself in the corridors as I have an identical twin, which, ironically, would also like to study Computer Science. I feel my interests and hobbies were influenced by my second brother (currently studying Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin), However I have always enjoyed technology-related activities. I also enjoy non-technology-related activities such as playing football, listening to music, and discussing controversial topics. My MUN career started as an usher in NewMUN 2015 when I was 11 years old. Shortly after the conference I was invited to join the MUN Club (I felt it was a huge privilege as at the time since the club was restricted to students under the age of 15). My first formal conference was FDRMUN 2016 where, In conjunction with the former secretary-general, Carlos Urrunaga, we debated on the topic of the Carbon Tax as Switzerland. Throughout the whole conference I did not speak once, so much so, in the funny awards I was highlighted as the most shy delegate. After the conference I thought MUN was not for me and I took a three year break. In 2019, I felt more prepared, and became an active participant of the club, primarily attending crisis committees. In the same year I became a member of the Secretariat and one year later I became the acting secretary-general. Throughout the past year, MUN at Newton and MUN in general have been hit hard due to the COVID-19 pandemic; starting the year with NewMUN 2020 cancelled and other conferences migrating to Zoom there was certainly some doubt on how the club was going to move forward. However, the secretariat along with our faculty advisors managed to set a plan for the future of the club. Currently, MUN at Newton has continued to maintain its participants and has adapted due to the hard work of the secretariat. This conference is not about me, or about the Newton Delegation, it is about you: delegates. Even during the pandemic you have kept participating in conferences and taking advantage of opportunities to discuss global issues. NewMUN has been specifically built brick by brick in order to fulfill your needs and to overcome your expectations. We commit ourselves towards making NewMUN become a vessel for your own MUN story. Yours in diplomacy, ALVARO ESTRELLA [email protected] 2 Letter From the Directors: Dear Delegates, It is our honor to welcome you all to the NewMUN 2021 United Nations Security Council Committee! Although reading a dual letter may sound weird, we hope that our enthusiasm can be reachable. Our names are Arnav Sahoo and Matias Blanes. It’s of our utmost pleasure to be joint committee directors of this year’s UNSC on the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. Alongside our reliable co-chair Lucas Maldonado, we will be looking forward to being shown just what the future leaders of the world can do when it comes to a problem concerning the very core values of the international community, such is the nature of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. We are both executives and part of the secretariat team at Newton College since 2019. As strong enthusiasts of the UNSC, we have participated in several conferences as double delegates, particularly, in UNSC committees. However, it’s also conspicuous that you are also fascinated by the dynamic of this type of committee, so we are eager to be presented with new possibilities on such a fascinating issue. The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War is a conflict which could not get much international media coverage, mainly because of the large coverage of the 2020 US presidential elections. Nonetheless, it is a conflict involving the interest of various Eastern Powers. The conflict has shaped much of the Eastern Hemisphere’s politics, both in a positive and a negative way. While it isn’t as deadly as other conflicts currently taking place, it sure is one of the longest. Many solutions have been proposed, but have failed to decrease the tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, it is your duty to shape the end of this conflict. Please do not hesitate to send us an e-mail containing any questions, doubts or general misconceptions regarding the background guide, topic or committee as a whole. We’ll be glad to answer them. Without further ado, we wish you the best of luck. We’re looking forward to seeing you in committee! Arnav Sahoo & Matias Blanes UNSC Co-Directors [email protected] [email protected] 3 Statement of the Problem: Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region in southwestern Azerbaijan with an ethnic Armenian majority. Although the area is part of Azerbaijan, it is governed by the post-Soviet breakaway Republic of Artsakh. While no UN member recognizes its existence, the state has its own military and government. Armenia is known for supporting Artsakh, given that the state consists of an Armenian majority. Below is a map of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The regions shaded in grey are Armenian lands, while those in orange are the regions governed by Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the areas shaded in pink, represent the regions with Armenian troops that are internationally recognized as Azerbaijani land. The border between the Azeri regions dominated by Armenian troops and the rest of Azerbaijan is known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact (broken lines coloured in black). The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War is the second war in the area after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. One important factor to be considered is the ethnicity and social identity of both countries. Despite the proximity between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the ethnic differences are noticeable. The vast majority of Armenia belongs to the Armenian Apostolic Church (92.5%) while 96.8% of Azerbaijan’s population practices Islam. Nonetheless, both countries are known to have secularity rooted in their national constitutions. In Nagorno-Karabakh alone, 98% of its citizens affiliate themselves with the Armenian Apostolic Church. Additionally, Nagorno-Kharabakh’s population is mostly Armenian, which makes the majority of its citizens feel more identified with Armenia rather than Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan gained independence in 1991. However, the frozen conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh had already started by then. Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Karabakh has been the only post-Soviet frozen conflict zone concerning the sovereignty of multiple nations. On September 27, the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War commenced. It’s still not clear which party started the attacks. The Armenian Ministry of Defense confirms that Azerbaijan instilled violence in the Kharabakhian town of Stepanakert at 8:10 AM GMT+4. The Azerbaijani government claims that on the same day, at 6:00 AM GMT+4, Armenian forces 4 began to strike Azeri settlements, thus reasoning their attacks on Stepanakert as a retaliation of Armenian attacks. This day has been succeeded with a few days of violent clashes between the military of Armenia and Azerbaijan. It’s also worth mentioning that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev presented an ultimatum to Armenian troops while obeying the Geneva Convention and the International Humanitarian Law. The conference for the United Nations Security Council is set to commence on 30 September 2020. There haven’t been any territorial changes yet; the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact remains geographically the same. However, various military engagements are taking place in towns across Nagorno-Karabakh. History of the Committee: The United Nations Security Council is one of the six main organs of the United Nations, and has the primary goal of maintaining peace and security worldwide. The Security Council was founded on October 24, 1945. The Security Council was composed of 11 members, five of which were permanent. The five permanent members used to be the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the French Republic. Among the permanent members, the People’s Republic of China replaced the Republic of China in 1971 under the United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. 2758. In the late 1980s, peacekeeping operations grew in massive amounts, and countries such as Somalia, Angola and Liberia were largely benefitted. However, as these operations showed success, there were still a lot of doubts about whether the Security Council was really effective, shown in the failures in missions in Rwanda and Bosnia & Herzegovina. During this period, the Russian Federation succeeded the Soviet Union’s place in the UNSC as one of the five permanent members. The Security Council’s voting procedure is stated in Article 27 of the UN charter and Rule 40 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure. Article 27 states that “decisions of the Security Council are made by an affirmative vote of nine members, whereas each member has one vote”. However, votes of the permanent members are required to adopt the decisions taken during the session.
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