KARABAKH HAD TO BE TRANSFERRED UNDER ARMENIAN SOVEREIGNTY IN KEY WEST,
BRITISH RESEARCHER WRITES

11.05.2004 16:41

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The international mediators for settlement of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict from the US, France and Russia have
proposed several modes for solution of the problem. However, the most
courageous was the Key West one. As reported by Liberty radio station,
Wall Street Journal reports it referring to Thomas de Waal, the author
of a book on the Karabakh conflict. For the fist time lifting the
veil of mystery of the settlement project, presented in the course
of the talks in Key West US city, de Waal notes that in compliance
with that version, “Armenia had to provide an opportunity to 95%
of Azeri refugees to return to their homes.” Besides, “a way to the
Azeri enclave of Nakhichevan had to be opened through the territory of
Armenia.” In exchange, in de Waal’s words, “Azerbaijan had to refuse
from Karabakh, except for Shushi town.” Citing the second item of the
Key West document on “conveying Karabakh under the sovereignty of
Armenia,” the author notes that if it is the case, “from the human
point of view the benefit would be the biggest, however so would be
the political risk for Azerbaijan.” Member of the British Institute for
War and Peace Reporting Thomas de Waal also considers the opportunity
of resumption of hostilities. “The human price of a new war will be
horrible even if the conflict is local. Azerbaijan will lose thousands
of young people only on minefield, which lie along the whole of the
front line. And the small beautiful province in the middle – Nagorno
Karabakh – may disappear at all,” he forecasts. At that Thomas de Waal
considers the Karabakh conflict solvable, noting if it is the case
“both nations will be saved from isolation.” “Armenians and Azeris
have much more in common, than, e.g., Israelis and Palestinians,” he
writes. The percentage of mixed nationality family couples was rather
high. “The problem is that for already more than ten years the two
nations rarely enter into a dialogue,” the author considers. “The most
surprising for a person from the outside is that Azerbaijan does not
sit at a bargaining table with Karabakh Armenians, whom it considers
its citizens,” the Wall Street Journal article sums up.