OSKANIAN: NAGORNO KARABAKH ISSUE HAS NO MILITARY SOLUTION

Azg/arm
31 March 05

“Nagorno Karabakh issue has no military solution. If it had, the
solution would be already found. We waged one war, and the Armenian
side won. We cansee where the Serbian authorities reached trying to
solve the Kosovo issue militarily”, foreign minister of Armenia,
Vartan Oskanian, said on March 29 parliamentary hearings. “No one can
impose solution on anyone. We are sure that the only solution may be
reached around negotiation table with concessions from all three
sides”, he added. “What hinders the peaceful process is Azerbaijan’s
maximalism and assurance that the Nagorno Karabakh issue is a
territorial issue. It’ s worth reminding that the Armenian forces had
no region out of Nagorno Karabakh’s territory under control. Other
regions were taken over due to Azerbaijan’ s aggression and serve
Karabakh’s security today. The issue of Nagorno Karabakh should be
viewed out of the context of territorial integrity as, besides the
historic and legal arguments, Karabakh has a history of 15 years of
self-determination and statehood and every new day makes it more
difficult to turn back the wheel of history. The Azeri side hankers
for that, hoping to forcethe Armenian side to go on compromise by
taking advantage of its oil resources and isolated Armenia’s economic
issues”.

Having said this, Vartan Oskanian underlined that difficulties are
overcome and that developing Armenia has not changed its position in
the Karabakh settlement issue and that every compromise has to be
accepted first of all for the Karabakh people who has proven able to
have a separate state. It’s a useless try by the world community to
bring Karabakh under Azerbaijan’s control through attracting with
broad human rights and economic privileges. The minister assured, “All
elements of Karabakh settlement, including the issue of Karabakh’s
status, top the agenda. The Armenian side finds that Nagorno Karabakh
cannot be in Azerbaijan’s structure, it should have direct overland
connection with Armenia and the Karabakh people’s security should be
guaranteed. Those are the principles to be applied in future and the
primary issue is the recognitionof Nagorno Karabakh’s
self-determination by the international community and Azerbaijan,
after which it will be possible to start settling the issue”, Vartan
Oskanian said. He rounded off hoping that Kocharian and Aliyev will be
ableto smooth things over during April meeting and continue the talks
aiming at the soonest settlement of the issue.

By Nana Petrosian