Azeri paper accuses Russian, French mediators of Armenian sympathy

Yeni Musavat, Baku
9 Feb 05

Text of political department report by Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni
Musavat on 9 February headlined “Absurd statements from co-chairmen”
and subheaded “Russian and French co-chairmen spoke of the rights of
‘Armenian refugees’ from Nagornyy Karabakh in Xankandi”

The Russian and French co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group, Yuri
Merzlyakov and Bernard Fassier, have issued absurd statements in a
meeting with the head of the “refugee committee” of the separatist
regime in Karabakh, Sanasar Saryan. Regnum news agency quoted Saryan
as complaining about international indifference to the violation of
the rights of “about half a million Armenian” refugees from Nagornyy
Karabakh in a meeting with the co-chairmen, who were in Xankandi
as part of the OSCE fact-finding mission. “There are almost half a
million refugees from Nagornyy Karabakh across the globe. They do not
have appropriate rights and cannot receive any benefits or assistance.”

In response to Saryan’s complaints, Merzlyakov said that it would be
wrong to think that the co-chairmen were aloof to this issue. “We
are meeting refugees here, too. You should understand that the
co-chairmen should be impartial, but you should not accuse us of
having no feelings.”

French co-chairman Fassier said that he had seen many refugees living
in “hard conditions” during his visit to Karabakh. “Therefore, I
understand your pain,” the French co-chairman said. Fassier added that
it was necessary to deal with the issue of the status of Karabakh’s
“Armenian refugees”. “I know for now that it is necessary to tackle
it.”

The representative of the separatist regime told the OSCE mission
during its visit to the occupied territories that Armenian refugees
are being re-settled in those territories. Reports about the content
of Saryan’s meeting with the co-chairmen show that they have agreed
with this argument of the separatists and even expressed regret
about the conditions of the Armenians, who were settled in the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan in violation of all international
conventions. It is interesting that Merzlyakov actually backed the
statement by the representative of the separatist regime that half a
million Armenians had allegedly became refugees. This is despite the
fact that Merzlyakov cannot but know how absurd Saryan’s allegation
is. How could Nagornyy Karabakh produce 500,000 Armenian refugees
if the entire population of the republic was close to 165,000 people
before the start of military operations?

Despite his claims of impartiality, Merzlyakov sympathizes in part
with the absurd claims by the representative of the separatist regime
and concurs that the rights of “hundreds of thousands” of Armenian
refugees from Nagornyy Karabakh are being violated. All this raises
doubts about the objectivity of the OSCE mission assigned to examine
Armenia’s settlement policy in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands.