CANDIDATES’ APPROACHES OVER NAGORNO KARABAKH SETTLEMENT WILL BE DECISIVE IN RA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, ARMAN MELIKIAN CONSIDERS
Noyan Tapan
Dec 17 2007
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The candidate, who has no approaches
of his own over the Nagorno Karabakh settlement, is doomed to failure
in the forthcoming presidential elections. Arman Melikian, the former
Adviser to the NKR President, a candidate for presidency in the RA
presidential elections, expressed such an opinion in his interview
to Noyan Tapan correspondent.
He considers that the approaches being the basis of the negotiations
today do not permit the parties to make a mutually acceptable
decision. In particular, mediators’ proposals do not take into
consideration the interests of more than 500 thousand Armenian
refugees. A. Melikian offers a new basis for Nagorno Karabakh
negotiations, the principle of recognition of human rights. "I think
refugees and internally displaced persons, be they Armenians or
Azeris, should not be made to suffer once more by moving from one
place to another again. I consider that the liberated territories
should be given to Azeri Armenian refugees by the ownership right,
as the latters’ property has entirely remained in Azerbaijan," he said.
As regards Azeris living in Karabakh, they, according to A. Melikian,
did not undergo ethnic cleansings and left Karabakh, as Azerbaijan
had launched operations against NKR. According to him, there were no
Azeris in the populated areas the NKR formations entered: "They left
not under the pressure of Armenian forces, but by the instigation of
the very Azeri authorities."
A. Melikian considers that the current negotiations format is
distorted: one of the conflict parties is NKR and it should be
represented in the negotiations process. Besides, he believes that the
1989 decision of the Armenian Supreme Council on reuniting Karabakh
with Armenia, by speculating which Azerbaijan tries to present Armenia
as an aggressor country, should be considered as invalid.
According to A. Melikian, the opponents of recognition of Karabakh
independence by Armenia assert that for instance, Turkey gained nothing
from the recognition of the independence of Cyprus. A. Melikian
considers that Turkey’s interest was the following: it builds its
relations with the other non-recognized Turkish state on legal
bases and has its troops there on legal bases. He considers that by
recognizing Karabakh’s independence, Armenia at least to the same
extent can gain in the issue of its relations with NKR, getting rid
of many ungrounded accusations.