VARDAN OSKANIAN: THERE WILL BE NO NEW WARS IN OUR REGION: WE WILL NOT UNLEASH IT AND THEY KNOW THAT THEY WILL NOT WIN
Noyan Tapan
Nov 30, 2007
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN. "We are grateful for the great way
we have passed under the patronage of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs,"
RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian stated in his speech made at the
meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Madrid. According to him,
"we have received a working document, which is fair, balanced and can
be a basis for a preliminary agreement." That document, according
to the Minister, touches upon the basic problem, Nagorno Karabakh
people’s security, through self-determination, as well as the problem
of refugees and territories, which have emerged as a result of that
struggle for self-determination.
At the same time, the Minister emphasized that outside of
the negotiation process, there is another, contradictory and
disheartening reality. First, there are militaristic calls ringing
from the highest levels of Azerbaijan’s leadership; second, Baku’s
systematic, organized hate propaganda has reached frightening levels
within Azerbaijan. Third, according to the Minister, is "Azerbaijan’s
willful obstruction of international envoys entrusted with monitoring
the conflict and the region is threatening to upset the fine balance
that we have sustained, and fourth, their active and aggressive search
for alternative international forums in which to present their case,
rebuffs their responsibility to compromise. As hopeful as we are
that a negotiated settlement is possible, this hostile atmosphere
concerns us."
V. Oskanian affirmed that Armenians believe there will be no new
wars in our region. "I know this because we won’t start it, and
they know they can’t win it. There is no military solution for this
conflict. The only solution is one based on compromise, and in that
sense, this document denies each side their maximalist desires and
focuses instead on a sensible, respectable, acceptable solution that
can be explained to ordinary people. And will make it possible for
ordinary people to reconnect over time and across political boundaries
in a space split by war and hatred."