Armenian minister vows to get guarantees for Karabakh’s “self-determination”
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
1 Dec 04
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has spoken about the
government’s policy on Karabakh in his interview with Armenian Public
TV. Oskanyan rejected any settlement option without a “full guarantee
for Karabakh’s self-determination” and called to end “speculations”
about the government’s unwillingness to resolve the problem. He
described his recent visit to Burkina Faso for the Francophone summit
as a move to counter Azerbaijan’s policy of cooperation “with all
possible organizations to belittle our successes”. Oskanyan also said
that the Equatorial Guinea court’s verdict with regard to six Armenian
pilots accused of the involvement in the coup attempt was “unfair”.
Hailing Slovakia’s recognition of “the Armenian genocide”, he hoped
that the upcoming EU summit would raise an issue of Turkey’s
“blockade” of Armenia. The following is an excerpt from report by
Armenian Public TV on 1 December; subheadings have been inserted
editorially:
[Presenter] Good evening, Mr [Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan]
Oskanyan. You have just flown in Armenia from the Francophone summit
[in Burkina Faso]. Armenia has got an observer status. What is your
comment on this issue?
Armenia trying to counter Azerbaijan’s “aggressive policy”
[Oskanyan] Yes, I have just returned from the meeting in Burkina
Faso. This was my first visit to Africa and, that was why, it was very
interesting.
As of today, the International Francophone Organization is an
important organization for us. Its popularity grows on a daily basis
and various states want to become members of it. Over 50 countries are
members of this organization and dozens of countries enjoy the
observer status there. Armenia, Georgia, Sweden and Croatia have the
observer status, and I think we shall become full members of the
organization.
The organization debated the poverty reduction, development during the
age of globalization, protection of cultural heritage and other
issues. Similar organizations are interesting for us because we can
establish ties with other regional organizations and their members
with which we have not established relations. I think, it is important
to cooperate with African states in such organizations. This is
significant due to the fact that, at the moment Azerbaijan, we will
detail this later, is pursuing very aggressive policy in various
international organizations and, therefore, our cooperation with those
bodies is of great importance.
Verdict of Equatorial Guinea court on Armenian pilots “unfair”
[Presenter] A decision on the fate of six Armenian pilots has been
made in another African state. The court in Equatorial Guinea already
passed its verdict. Given this fact, what can the Armenian Foreign
Ministry do?
[Oskanyan] You know, our delegation was there during the trial. The
Armenian ambassador telephoned me immediately after the verdict. I was
in Burkina Faso at that time. Of course, this was a bad news and it
worried us. We believe that the verdict was unfair as our pilots had
nothing in common with the events there.
[Passage omitted: Oskanyan commiserated with families of the pilots]
Turkey must realize that closed borders with Armenia to hamper its EU
accession
[Presenter] The campaign for the recognition of the Armenian genocide
is under way in Europe. The latest country to recognize the genocide
is Slovakia and its parliament recognized the genocide yesterday [30
November]. Could you comment on this?
[Oskanyan] First, I hail the Slovakian parliament’s decision. It was a
very important decision. At the moment, the Armenian genocide is not a
purely Armenian issue, as we believe it is a global issue.
[Passage omitted: this decision coincides with Turkey’s bid for EU
membership]
[Presenter] The EU summit scheduled for 17 December is to discuss
Turkey’s EU membership. Is it possible that the summit will issue
serious requirements regarding Ankara’s blockade of Armenia?
[Oskanyan] Yes, I would like to stress that, indeed, closed borders
are unacceptable for Europe today. They realize this very well. We do
not know whether they want to make this issue one of the conditions
[for Turkey]. We feel that it would be very difficult to add it to the
Copenhagen criteria as a precondition for Turkey’s accession.
But we are expecting that this issue will be raised at the summit. We
are conducting serious work in this connection. The Armenian president
has sent a letter to all the leaders of the EU member countries. Today
I also invited all the ambassadors of the EU member countries
accredited to Armenia and discussed the issue with them. We hope that
our continuous work will yield positive results at the summit. It is
very important to raise this issue as Turkey must know that it is
important and necessary for the EU member countries to have opened
borders. It is generally unacceptable that one country has the closed
borders with the country involved in the EU’s New Neighbourhood
Policy.
Karabakh topic for “speculations”
[Presenter] Mr Oskanyan, the last major topic is the
Azerbaijan-initiated discussion of the Karabakh issue at the UN
General Assembly. The opposition claims that the postponement of the
discussion is the last warning to Armenia. The Armat [Armenian: Root –
centre for civil and democratic developments] stated today that
Armenia should either accept a suggested secret plan or will face the
fact that a decision will be adopted by the General Assembly. What is
your comments on these statements?
[Oskanyan] First, I want to regrettably say that the issue of Nagornyy
Karabakh is also a subject for speculations. Unfortunately, these
speculations, regardless of our wishes, have a negative impact on the
settlement process and this is against the will of the Armenian
people, not talking about the authorities. Everyone speculates about
this issue today. This should not be so. We should take it in the
context of whether it is useful for the settlement of the problem.
I believe that the Nagornyy Karabakh problem should not be a cause of
contention. If you pay attention to the opposition’s statements,
interviews and comments on this issue, you will see that they view the
only way out of the situation in the government’s departure from
power. This leads to a conclusion that the opposition is trying to
benefit from the Karabakh problem for their political ends. I think
that this approach is a great mistake and it has a major impact on
Armenia’s rather substantiated position. At present, I want to assure
our people that our position is very good and I can prove this.
However, the speculations are indeed irrelevant and they are not only
against the authorities, but also Armenia and its people.
What is happening now? While reading the opposition’s statements and
opinions, I come across three major inaccuracies.
Armenia not to return territories under its control without guarantee
for Karabakh’s self-determination
First, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen in Astana [in September 2004]
have allegedly provided Armenia and Azerbaijan with proposals, which
you also mentioned. As Armenia has allegedly turned down the proposals,
the co-chairmen want to put pressure on Armenia to accept these
proposals through the UN. Denying all this, I want to state that the
presidents in Astana discussed what the foreign ministers of the two
states had drawn up. Prior to the Astana meeting, I and my opposite
number from Azerbaijan had four meetings. We drew up a package of
proposals at these meetings and submitted to the presidents of the two
states. In turn, the presidents discussed those proposals in Astana
and reached agreements on certain issues and wanted extra time for the
discussion of other issues.
Over that period Azerbaijan has wanted the UN to have the discussion
of this issue, while Armenia has informed the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmen of our readiness to start the second stage of talks in
Prague.
The second mistake is that the UN allegedly supports the
pro-Azerbaijani initiative. Actually, the co-chairmen are fully
against this. They have repeatedly spoken about this. The reason for
the postponement of the voting on Azerbaijan’s initiative is that the
co-chairmen are consistently exerting pressure on Azerbaijan to
abandon its demand because they believe that this might inflict a
serious blow on the whole process. The foreign ministers will have a
meeting in the near future.
I will leave for Sofia on Sunday [5 December] as an annual meeting of
[OSCE] foreign ministers will start there on Monday [6 December]. The
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen and the Azerbaijani foreign minister will
attend the meeting as well. A meeting of the foreign ministers with
the co-chairmen in attendance has been scheduled. We will again return
to the issue of resuming the talks.
The third mistake is that Armenia has allegedly no interest in
resolving the problem and is pursuing a policy of delaying the
settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem. I want to ask them, what
do they understand when speaking about the resolution of the issue? If
they want the resolution of the issue as we want, I accept their
criticism that the process is being delayed. Our approach to the
settlement of the issue fully differ from their [presumably
Azerbaijan’s] options. If there is no full guarantee for Karabakh’s
self-determination, we will not return an inch of the territories
under our control.
Unless Karabakh’s international recognition by international community
is envisaged in a possible document, we will not give our consent to
the liberation of the territories. We will not opt for mutual
compromises for the imminent settlement of the problem without
reaching our aims. This is ruled out. Armenia will not agree that
Karabakh to be a de jure part of Azerbaijan. If some people believe
that Armenia will agree to the settlement of the problem under these
conditions, let them criticize us saying that we delay the resolution
of the problem. The delay is unavoidable until the resolution of the
issue meets the interests of the Armenian Republic and its people. We
are working hard to this effect.
However, the opposite side has intensified its aggressiveness. My
interpretation of aggressiveness is that this is not the result of our
aggressive policy as claimed by our opposition. On the contrary,
Azerbaijan is aggressive because we achieved serious successes some
5-6 years ago. For now, Azerbaijan’s new president is trying to
cooperate with all possible organizations to belittle our successes.
They are working with new states which are not familiar with this
issue. Our diplomacy is facing serious difficulties. At present the
issue is rather tough.
[Passage omitted: Azerbaijan intensifies aggressive policy in all
spheres]