OSCE MISSION WILL NOT VISIT OCCUPIED SHAHUMIAN, GETASHEN AND NORTHERN
MARTAKERT
Azg/arm
29 Jan 05
The OSCE co-chairs and the Minsk group monitoring mission arrived in
Baku yesterday. They will visit Yerevan on January 29 and Stepanakert
on 30.
Armenia gave consent to OSCE monitoring mission when Azerbaijan agreed
to take the formula on “situation in Azerbaijani occupied territories”
back from the UN General Assembly.
Official Yerevan, foreign and defense ministers in particular, even
expressed satisfaction on the coming mission in Nagorno Karabakh’s
contiguous territories. Oskanian said that it is Azerbaijan that
should fret as they carried out inhabitation of Shahumian and Getashen
regions on state level. “The monitoring group will arrive to assess
the situation with inhabiting. Azerbaijan will get puzzled when it
appears that most of the inhabitants are refugees from Shahumian,
Getashen and Northern Martakert” he said.
“Firstly, our state implements no policy of inhabitation, secondly,
the world knows that there is a safety zone. And, at least, that will
be a chance to see if, say, Shahumian or other regions are inhabited
with Azeris or not, if Azerbaijan is really inhabiting the territories
or not”, Serge Sargsian said.
The OSCE monitoring group is reportedly not going to visit the regions
of Shahumian, Getashen and Northern Martakert – territories under
Azerbaijan’s occupation.
Vahram Atanesian heading the Commission on Foreign Affairs of Nagorno
Karabakh said that Karabakh is open for any kind of monitoring but was
concerned that the mission will visit only territories under Karabakh
forces’ supervision passing by the territories occupied by Azerbaijan
and inhabited by Azeris, according to official Baku.
“We would like the monitoring mission to learn the situation in
Shahumian, Getashen and in the north of Martakert too. The
inhabitation there started in 1991. Ayaz Mutalibof, the Azeri
president of the time, participated at the inhabitation of Getashen
region with Meskhet-Turks”, Atanesian said.
Authorities in Karabakh expressed readiness to create favorable
conditions for the mission work. Seyran Ohanian, minister of defense
of Karabakh, noted at the new conference that “those territories are
under Karabakh’s total control” but “we cannot forbid our citizens to
farm in this regions”. “There is a long talk process ahead to decide
the fate of these territories and any decision concerning the
territories should be taken in the framework of this process”.
The Shahumian-Getashen Union turned to the European Court of Human
Rights to institute an action against Azerbaijan. “The court took
cases of 4 families but the proceeding is not under way yet”,
president of the Union, Edik Balayan, said. Balayan said that those
families’ property was taken away. The population of the 26 villages
under Azeris’ supervision left without property. “Our right of
property was violated, and the sate has to compensate for this”,
Balayan said.
Is not that likely that the Azeris will follow Armenia’s example and
demand compensation? Balayan said that most of the Azeris who left
Armenia managedto change their flats. He had no information whether
Azerbaijan turned to the European Court or not. But according to Trend
agency of Azerbaijan, 10 Azeri refugees appealed to the court in
Strasburg demanding compensation.
By Tatoul Hakobian