VARTAN OSKANIAN: RATIFY THE RIGHTS OF KARABAKH PEOPLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION
AND ACHIEVE ITS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

Azg/arm
24 Dec 04

Armenia Unlikely to Be against Step-by-Stage Settlement

RA foreign minister is sure that today the Armenian side can get
more in Nagorno Karabakh issue than in 1997. “Today, I see that we
have a serious opportunity to ratify the right of NKR people for
self-determination and achieve its international recognition,” he said.

“Today, the Prague process is on, I know what is in the agenda and I
see an opportunity to get more, than we could get in 1997. You can ask
whether we will get or not. I don’t know. Five year may pass and we
will again begin this dialogue and say that we should have accepted
that version in 1997. But, today, there are such issues are on the
agenda that directly prompt us that we can definitely get more than in
1997. I wish I could talk about all this openly without making harm to
the negotiations,” Oskanian said to a press conference on December 22.

Oskanian stated that Ilham Aliyev is merely unable to meet the
Key West agreements, on the other hand he said that unless a new
key suggestion is made the Key West achievements are still on the
agenda. “But one can in some way modify the approaches, preserving
the principles. I would describe the current situation at the Prague
process in the following way: the Key West principles remain the same,
but they have underwent some modification that would help the Azeri
side be involved in the process,” Oskanian said.

“Principally, Armenia’s position is not changed: we believe that we
should achieve full settlement of the issue, certainly, preserving the
opportunity for maneuvering. There is one obvious fact, i.e. it will
be difficult for us to achieve the same results with the current Azeri
authorities as we did with the former ones. We realize it,” he said.

Oskanian advices to pay attention to the article published in the
French Le Figaro where “today’s general prospects over NKR issue” were
touched on. Pierre Lelouch, chairman of NATO Parliamentary Assembly,
and Anna Palacio, former Spanish foreign minister, expressed opinion
in the abovementioned article that “Armenia should temporally control
Nagorno Karabakh, while its further status will be adopted 5 or 10
years after through referendum.”

Oskanian believes that Nagorno Karabakh’s right for self-determination
can be indirect in the aspect of the time. In response to the question
put by Azg Daily “if the Prague process yields positive results
and no obstacles occur, will Armenia agree to discuss the issue of
NKR’s status in 10 or 15 years”, Oskanian said: “We try to ratify the
right of NKR people for self-determination and we can apply flexible
deadlines for that. But the right for NKR peoples self-determination
should be ratified, we will struggle till the end and we will not
sign any agreement without ratifying that fact.”

If we really can be flexible in the issue of the deadlines for the
adoption of NKR’s status, as we could understand from the comments of
Oskanian, we shouldn’t exclude that Yerevan can consider it acceptable
the step-by-step solution, when the key issues of the conflict are
solved (returning of the territories, the refugees, etc.), while the
issue of NKR’s status is left to be solved in 5 or 10 years.

Generally, Oskanian has no complexes about the fact that in the times
of Levon Ter-Petrosian, former Armenian president, he was for the
step-by-step solution: “Of course, I can strictly refuse to begin a
dialogue (around that issue), I do it having one special goal: to break
the taboo on speaking freely in the issue of possible settlements of
Nagorno Karabakh conflict. We need reasonable discussions and analysis
connected with the settlement of the issue,” RA foreign minister said.

Oskanian accepts that the Karabakh side is not included in the current
negotiation process: “The only reason that NKR doesn’t participate
in the negotiations is Azerbaijan’s refusal. Today, Armenia faces
the following alternative, i.e. to insist on NKR’s participation
and refuse negotiating, or agree to negotiate for the sake of their
continuation. RA president decided to approach the issue in the
following way, it is not really so important who from the Armenians
is negotiating, the core of the negotiations is more important.
Armenia conducts the negotiations, but a certain period is sure to come
when NKR’s participation will be unavoidable in the process,” he said.

RA foreign minister also touched upon the statement made by Boris
Grizlov in Yerevan, according to which Armenia is Russia’s outpost in
the Caucasus. “This word doesn’t correctly reflect the essence of our
relations. I am sure that Grizlov meant really good Armenian-Russian
relations. I think that he used the wrong word,” he said.

Moreover, Oskanian thinks Armenia is the only South Caucasian
republic that conducts a more independent foreign policy. “The policy
of complementarism gives us more opportunities for maneuvering. Our
neighbors are more deeply dependent and their opportunities to maneuver
are more limited.”

By Tatoul Hakobian