Associated Press Worldstream
January 20, 2005 Thursday
U.S. official’s statement angers Armenians
by AVET DEMOURIAN; Associated Press Writer
YEREVAN, Armenia
A statement by a U.S. State Department official about unrecognized
regimes in the former Soviet Union has sparked an uproar in Armenia,
with groups ranging from students to scientists taking offense over a
comment involving the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Armenians picked up on comments that Elizabeth Jones, assistant
secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, made last week in a video
link with journalists in Moscow, Bratislava and Rome ahead of a
meeting next month with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovakia.
Jones said it is in Russia’s interests for the self-proclaimed
republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, Trans-Dniester in
Moldova, and Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan “to be stable, for
corruption to end there, for criminal secessionists who rule there to
be removed,” according to the English-language Moscow Times
newspaper.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a mostly ethnic Armenian enclave that has been
under ethnic Armenian control since a deadly six-year war against
Azerbaijani forces that ended in 1994 with a cease-fire, but without
a political settlement. Its self-proclaimed government is backed by
Armenia but is not internationally recognized.
Armenian media lashed out at Jones, and leaders of the small Caucasus
Mountain nation’s Academy of Sciences discussed it Wednesday, with
one scholar, Nikolai Oganesian, calling it “prevocational” and
another, Konstantin Karagezian, calling it “amoral.”
On Tuesday, several hundred students marched to the U.S. Embassy in
Yerevan, the capital, and handed over a declaration saying it was
“unacceptable.” Neither Armenia’s government nor the leadership of
Nagorno-Karabakh has reacted publicly, however.
The U.S. Embassy issued a statement Tuesday reiterating that the
United States “does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent
country,” does not recognize its leadership, and supports the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
It said the United States “holds that the future status of
Nagorno-Karabakh is a matter of negotiation between the parties in
the Minsk Group process,” in which mediators led by the United
States, France and Russia are working with Azerbaijan and Armenia to
foster a peaceful settlement. Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership is not
involved.
The statement said Jones’ comment “was directed at the need for the
U.S. and Russia to work together to resolve the conflicts and advance
transparency and rule of law in the conflict areas. We recognize that
the circumstances of each conflict are unique.”