ARKADY GHUKASYAN: WE CAN SPEAK WITH AZERBAIJAN BOTH WITH AND WITHOUT ARMENIA
Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 3 2006
"We can speak with Azerbaijan both with and without Armenia," declared
NKR President Arkady Ghukasyan in an interview with El Paris newspaper
and "Regnum" agency.
"Nagorno Karabakh should participate in the negotiation process by
all means. Since Armenia is also a party to the conflict, it would
be probably more logical if it also participated in the talks. Of
course, Armenia is a party involved in the conflict, but the main
sides are Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. And Baku’s aspiration to
speak only with Armenia means that it does not intend to settle the
conflict and is only engaged in propaganda activity," Arkady Ghukasyan
declared. Turning to Armenia’s agreement to hold negotiations with
Azerbaijan, NKR President noted that since Azerbaijan categorically
refuses to talk with Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia, most probably, proceeds
from the understanding that bad talks are better that the complete
lack of these. "War is the alternative to negotiations. By the way,
I think that everyone understands that Armenia cannot undertake the
functions of Karabakh.
That means hat there are questions, the resolution of which is
practically impossible without Nagorno Karabakh, and today everyone
understands that earlier or later Karabakh will return to the
negotiation process. By the way, Azerbaijan does not refute this,
either, insisting that it agrees on some kind of resolution with
Armenia, Karabakh will get involved. However, this is an illogical
position: what if we don’t like the resolution even if they agree upon
it. Therefore, we come from the fact that if we want the conflict to
be resolved, we must have a realistic format of negotiations," NKR
President underlined. In his words, the absurdness of the situation
is that attempts are made to cure the disease without diagnosis. "Up
to now there is no exact comprehension what the core of the conflict
is. Is it a self-determination question, a conflict between authorities
in Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, or a conflict between Armenia and
Azerbaijan? Thus, the attempt to mend the disease without the diagnosis
is evident. This is an extremely absurd situation. Azerbaijan has
put a target to blackmail the international community and distort
the attention from what is happening in the region in reality,"
Arkady Ghukasyan considers.
He reminded that Nagorno Karabakh has been recognized as a conflict
party and as such it has been always participating in the talks.
"There is no negotiation process today. From 1992 an active
negotiation process was underway in the framework of the OSCE Minsk
Group. Nagorno Karabakh was participating in all the talks. From 1998
the negotiation process was actually impeded. Today the OSCE Minks
Group Co-Chairs arrive in the region and consult with the conflicting
sides. Nevertheless, there is no process as such. Representatives
of Armenia and Azerbaijan meet outside this process. Why aren’t we
involved in the talks? This is the fancy of Baku, which demanded at a
certain point that talks be held only with Armenia. Why does Azerbaijan
behave this way? It aspires to present Armenia as an aggressor, to
show that all its problems are connected with Armenia rather than
Karabakh and that sanctions should be executed against it. To cut
short, Azerbaijan is engaged in propaganda, Arkady Ghukasyan noted. In
his words, for resuming the negotiation process Nagorno Karabakh’s
involvement is a must. "I have the impression that Baku does not want
to resolve the conflict. Azerbaijan hopes that time works for its favor
and cherishes the illusion that it has oil and will get rich tomorrow,
will strengthen its army and will destroy Nagorno Karabakh. That
‘s way Azerbaijan does not intend to have practical participation in
the negotiation process. This is the question today, since settlement
always includes risk; it is impossible to achieve 100 percent of the
dreams. The leadership of Azerbaijan is not ready to take risks. As
for the economic potential, I think it is the decisive precondition
of victory in a war. But economic potential alone will not resolve
anything. When Azerbaijan was starting war against Nagorno Karabakh,
it had considerably greater economic potential, but the results of
the war are known to you," Ghukasyan underlined.