KARABAKH NGOs DISCUSS ACHIEVEMENTS OF 12 YEARS OF CEASEFIRE
Lragir.am
13 may 06
On May 12 NKR celebrated the 12th anniversary of the
armistice. Helsinki Undertaking 92 organized a round-table meeting
with NGOs and invited Speaker Ashot Ghulyan. What have you done over
these 12 years, did you use this period rationally? Public opinion on
this question is not unanimous. First, the representatives mentioned
that Karabakh should become involved in the talks. Karen Ohanjanyan,
the coordinator of Helsinki Undertaking 92 noticed that the present
format of the talks cannot lead to a resolution in the context it was
raised. Member of Parliament Maxim Mirzoyan says political conjuncture
changes constantly, and activities should be made to correspond it. If
in 1991 we had to hold a referendum and declare our independence, now
we have to think in accordance with other parameters to guarantee our
independence and security.
Independence is independent home and foreign policies. In this sense
we can hardly be considered independent. We lack a constitution, we
held the first parliamentary hearings on the Karabakh issue quite
recently, we have a large number of economic irregularities. This led
to the discussion of a settlement at the OSCE Minsk Group unacceptable
for us, namely recognition of the independence of Karabakh within the
borders of the Autonomous Region of Nagorno Karabakh plus a tiny
corridor,’ said Member of Parliament Maxim Mirzoyan.
The speaker of the National Assembly Ashot Ghulyan noticed that the
standpoint of the NKR government has not changed since 1991. It is
guaranteeing the independence and security of the people of NKR. A lot
has changed since 1991, namely with respect to the issue of
territories. Did the standpoint change? In answer to this question
Ashot Ghulyan said it is difficult to have ready schemes every
time. Do we have a ready plan of actions in case the United States
strikes our neighbor Iran? This question of Karen Ohanjanyan also
remained without an answer. As an achievement, the participants of the
round-table meeting mentioned the contrasts found in Karabakh. The
money spent on the billiard contest and expensive song festivals could
be spent on repairs ofthe Republic Hospital, which is in a terrible
condition. Doctor Lyudmila Grigoryan says one of the `peculiarities’
of the year is the wrong choice of priorities.
Another peculiarity is the lack of mechanisms of public debates on
burning issues. In 20 days from the parliamentary hearings on the
Karabakh issue it turned out that people had different opinions on
these hearings. During the round-table meeting the hearings were
criticized, but no one was able to answer the question why these
evaluations are made so late.
`The Jewish fund will always be full of billions, because the society
is sure this money is spent duly and is not stolen,’ says former
member of parliament Valery Ghazaryan. Sociologist Davit Gharabekyan
says the chief problem of our independence is that we have not learned
to solve our problems ourselves.
We are still waiting for someone from `above’ to tell something or to
blame someone.