TIGRAN TOROSIAN: FORMULATION OF US STATE DEPARTMENT’S REPORT IS RUDE AND UNACCEPTABLE

Noyan Tapan
Mar 15 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The formulation of the US State
Department’s 2006 Annual Report on Human Rights, according to which
Armenia continues occupying Azerbaijan’s territories – Nagorno Karabakh
and 7 regions, is "rude and unacceptable." The RA National Assembly
Speaker, Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA)
Tigran Torosian expressed this opinion at the Urbat Club on March 15.

According to him, this formulation is completely unacceptable for
two reasons: first, it has no relation to problems to be discussed
in a report on human rights problems, secondly, the US is a co-chair
state of the OSCE Minsk Group and should not give such a definition,
especially as no international organization has adopted a document,
in which Nagorno Karabakh is considered an occupied territory. "Even
in the UN Security Council’s resolutions, the territories adjacent to
Nagorno Karabakh are considered as occupied by local Armenian forces
and not by Armenia," T. Torosian noted.

In his opinion, the statement of the US embassy in Armenia, which
was issued after the report, is a "statement, from which it is
impossible to conclude what the matter is about." T. Torosian said that
particularly, the embassy’s statement notes that the US recognizes
Azerbaijan’s integrity. "But nobody has problems with territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan. Moreover, Minsk Group co-chairs said that
over the past few years, 2 principles have formed the basis of the
conflict resolution – territorial integrity and nations’ right of
self-determination."

In T. Torosian’s words, it is obvious that status of Nagorno Karabakh,
and the formulation and scheme of the conflict settlement will
eventually be decided within the framework of the Minsk Group. At
the same time he noted that there are structures, with which Armenia
should activate its work. In the opinion of T. Torosian, in the last
two years, Azerbaijan has activated its work but has not ensured
progress concerning the problem’s solution. The RA NA speaker noted
that these tendencies are dangerous so it is necessary that Armenia
also take more active steps in all directions. "We cannot hope that
this work of Azerbaijan will always be efficient," T. Torosian said.