STEPANAKERT LABELS ICG REPORT ‘PARTIAL AND PRO-AZERI’
By Tatoul Hakobian

AZG Armenian Daily #178
05/10/2005

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Karabakh issue

The Foreign Affairs Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh commented last week on
International Crisis Group’s “Nagorno Karabakh: Viewing the Conflict
On the Ground” report published September 14. The Ministry’s comments
show that Stepanakert is not satisfied with the Group’s report.

Political analyst Davit Babayan, aide of NKR President, told daily Azg
that “the report is made in best interests of Azerbaijan. You have
an impression that the document was prepared by an Azeri ministry”
and “instead of approaching the day of regulation, the report had a
negative influence on the regulation process”. In Babayan’s opinion,
which is harmonious with the comments of Karabakh’s FAM, the report
makes an impression that Nagorno Karabakh is a militarized state
totally dependent on Armenia as well as it pictures Karabakh conflict
as a territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that came
about as a result of Armenia’s aggression.

“A serious deficiency is that report passes in silence over the
fact that 90 per cent of Armenians became refugees as a result of
ethnic cleansings, pogroms and police’s castigations organized by
the Azerbaijani authorities in 1988-1991. Whereas 85 per cent of
the Azeris were compelled to leave their homes during the military
operations beginning from 1993. Besides, no force was applied to get
them out but they left with the retreating Azeri forces obeying Azeri
authorities’ order”, the statement of the NKR Foreign Ministry reads.

The report seems more pro-Azeri when considering the issue of refugees
and internally displaced persons (IDP). “The number of those Armenian
refugees that the authors claim to belong to the most suffered category
is curtailed by 35.000 (those are the IDPs from Shahumian, Martuni
and Martakert). This number of Armenian refugees is contrasted with
425.000 Azeri IDPs.

Favoritism towards Azerbaijan is obvious in figures too: the Azeri
refugees are mentioned 186 times whereas the Armenian ones only 40. The
Armenian refugees are often mentioned in negative context as illegal
inhabitants of Karabakh-controlled territories”.

“The first sentence of the report’s first chapter informs that ‘NK is
perhaps the most militarized society of the world’. Informing that NK
armed forces count 18.500 soldiers, the authors fail to mention that
Karabakh’s Defence Army is compelled to hold back the Azeri army of
40.000 on the opposite side of the border”, the Foreign Ministry’s
statement says.

Yet, Stepanakert sees the positive sides of the report too. It points
out particularly that Nagorno Karabakh has a point in claiming for its
independence, the Karabakh-controlled territories were not occupied
by Armenia and Azerbaijan’s claims of one and a half million IDPs
and claim of 20 per cent of Azeri territory being under Karabakh’s
control does not correspond with the reality. As negative aspects
of the report Stepanakert points out to the neglected interests
of Armenian refugees and IDPs, something that is a discrimination
from the non-governmental organization, the report contains threat
of resumption of military operations in the conflict zone, the
ICG does not recognize the borders of NKR and proceeds from the
Soviet administrative division, the authors tend to hold Armenia
and Azerbaijan equally responsible for the outbreak of the conflict
(this approach was used by the Soviet authorities in 1988-1991 opening
doors for Azerbaijan’s aggression against NKR).

The ICG will make public its second report, “Voices From the
Negotiation Table”.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress