KARABAGH MOVEMENT 19 YEARS LATER
By Sevak Hakobian

Yerkir.am
February 23, 2007

On February 22, Tesaket Club hosted representative of ARF’s Supreme
Body, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on
External Relations, Co-Chair of the Armenia-EU Inter-parliamentary
Cooperation Committee Armen Rustamian.

Rustamian commented on the further development of the Karabagh
movement that started 19 years ago and answered the journalists’
questions on the upcoming elections and dual citizenship.

The wave of the powerful movement that started in Stepanakert in
1988 soon reached Yerevan, the Freedom Square, and turned into a
pan-national movement.

19 years have passed since this extraordinary expression of national
unity.

Rustamian believes the events of 1988 were a pan-national renaissance
that started a new page in the history of the Armenian nation when
we created the Third Republic and had one of our greatest victories –
the Artsakh war. This was a serious step on the way of creating a Free,
Independent and United Armenia.

Rustamian believes only issues of national importance were discussed
in those days and this is why they united people. The government was
formed on the basis of national goals. However, the process of further
formation of the new regime deviated from the initially defined issues
and was not carried out in a consistent and responsible manner. This
is why, according to Rustamian, today we have our state but it is
not fully free and independent, and not yet fully united.

"We have a lot to do in this respect. The free Armenia we imagine
is truly democratic and the government is formed through perfect
elections.

Unfortunately, there is no tradition of elections that would comply
with international standards in Armenia. And this is the number
one issue – we should learn from the experience of the past years,"
Rustamian noted.

The goal of uniting Armenia is not yet fully accomplished either. The
incoming government that will be formed after the elections this year
and in 2008 will have to face this issue. Rustamian is sure that the
Karabagh conflict will have to finally be solved with participation
of all parties involved.

Negotiations in which not all the parties are participating cannot
be considered adequate. They can merely be viewed as consultations,
meetings or exchange of opinions.

Armenia is participating in the negotiations with a clearcut position
– as long as the Nagorno Karabagh Republic is not internationally
recognized, Armenia is representing the latter’s interests. Armenia
fully supports all of Nagorno Karabagh’s positions.

However, even though Armenia is representing Nagorno Karabagh,
Armenia cannot fully replace it because there are issues that are
under Karabagh’s sole jurisdiction, such as for instance the issues
of status, security guarantees, return of territories and refugees,
etc. Rustamian noted that these issues cannot be settled without taking
into consideration the Nagorno Karabagh Republic ‘s official position.

Rustamian believes that by engaging in the Karabagh issue Armenia
prevented the genocide that Azerbaijan was planning to commit in
Nagorno Karabagh.

Sumgait was an example of such intentions, and similar incidents would
have recurred had the volunteers from Armenia not come to support their
fellow Armenians. It is obvious that Artsakh cannot be returned into
the territory of a state that has implemented aggressive anti-Armenian
policies aimed at a genocide and still does not reject such policies.

Rustamian believes it is absurd to speak about Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity including Karabagh. "The whole world should understand that
Armenia was and still remains the guarantor for the Karabagh people’s
right to self-determination," he noted.

Rustamian believes these is one factor in the Karabagh settlement
process that we tend to overlook: this is the international community
with whom we should seriously work to ensure that it comes to a
condition that it will recognize Nagorno Karabagh people’s right to
self-determination. Armenia should work in this direction like it
works towards international recognition of the Genocide.

Rustamian also commented on ARF’s participation in the upcoming
elections noting that the party’s proportional list is not finalized
yet. It is now under discussion and will be publicized once it is
completed.

Rustamian stated that the list will not carry any surprises or
unexpected names. Answering the question who will be in which position
on the list Rustamian noted that this is not a difficult task for the
ARF since such questions do not cause any internal party conflicts
within ARF.