ARMENIAN MP SAYS CO-EXISTENCE WITH AZERIS IN KARABAKH IMPOSSIBLE

Ayots Ashkar, Yerevan
26 Apr 06

Excerpt from report by Vaan Vardanyan in the Armenian newspaper Ayots
Ashkar on 26 April headlined ” We may become good neighbours but each
of us should live at our own territories ”

On 21 April the NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh republic] parliament conducted
hearings on prospects of resolving the Karabakh conflict. Armenian
MP and leader of the union of political scientists Mayak Ovanesyan
has commented on the hearings.

[Ayots Ashkar correspondent] Mr Ovanesyan, what are your impressions
of the NKR parliamentary hearings?

[Mayak Ovanesyan] Such hearings have been organized by the NKR
parliament for the first time. Even though the OSCE Minsk Group is
mainly dealing with the Karabakh talks, it is no secret that certain
processes are simultaneously going on. That is the Dortmund conference,
the International Crisis Group and others are expressing opinions
which are not in favour of us at all. Despite the fact that Armenia
takes part in the talks, we [Armenia and Karabakh] should take a
single position.

[Passage omitted: Asked about new options of settling the conflict,
Ovanesyan said that co-existence of two nations practising different
religions was impossible and that it would lead to new killings]

We may become good neighbours, but each of us should live at our
own territories. The settlement model, which the media have been
speaking about so far, is unacceptable. The point is not that we are
better than Azerbaijanis or Jews are better than Arabs. We are simply
different and our co-existence is impossible.

Those who say that the Karabakh conflict will be resolved, the
Armenians will return to Baku and the Azerbaijanis to Shushi [Susa],
and they will all live in peace are absolutely wrong, although they
have good intentions. This will lead to a new war.

Many of my counterparts in Karabakh supported me. They also think that
the separation of the two nations which took place in past years should
be formalized and each of them should live on their own territories. We
may become good neighbours in the future. I think that Armenia should
suggest and support this idea at the talks. The Armenians of Karabakh
have determined themselves on the territories that belong to them
and the international community should respect this self-determination.

[Correspondent] How do Karabakh’s political forces imagine the limits
on possible compromises?

[Ovanesyan] They very much care about ensuring security of the
NKR in a global sense, rather than status for certain liberated
territories. Learning from bitter experience, they watch the problem
more closely and think that, whatever option for a settlement is
proposed, the NKR’s security should be protected no less well than
it is today. This is their pivotal claim.