By Edmond Y. Azadian
Every time the leaders of major powers meet, they issue statements on topical political problems of the day and the Karabagh conflict has become one of those issues. On the sidelines of G-8 meeting in the French city of Deauville, the presidents of US, France and Russia issued that routine statement which begs for interpretation.
The warring factions or parties to a conflict read into those declarations whatever they would like to see, and the statements are intentionally vague and equivocal in order not to divulge fully the issuing parties’ positions and to allow room for interpretation and misinterpretation.
This reminds us of the story of the oracles in ancient Greece. The most important oracle would sit in Delphi and many kings, priests and warriors would make pilgrimages there to learn from the prophecies or sage advice from the oracle, who was supposed to speak on behalf of the god Apollo. The ritual of the prophecies would begin with the sacrifice of a goat to find out if the time and the atmosphere were ripe for the rituals.
The predictions of the oracle were phrased very shrewdly, causing many supplicants to misinterpret the advice.
The interpretations, coming from different quarters, about the May 26 declaration reminds us of the prophecies of the Delphi oracle, and perhaps the sacrifice of the goat may symbolize Karabagh.