PRINCIPAL STANCES UNCHANGEABLE
ARMEN TSATURYAN

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on April 12, 2008
Armenia

`Toughening’ and `Mitigation’ Not Expected

The recent discussions on Karabakh conflict in the National Assembly
coincided with the consistent efforts of the pro-oppositional powers to
shift the issue to the internal political agenda.

It is evident that Armenia’s third President and his political team
will continue the process of peaceful negotiations on the settlement of
Karabakh conflict, in the scope of OSCE Minsk group. Meanwhile, beyond
a shadow of a doubt, the people of Nagorno Karabakh are strongly
determined to attain sovereignty and separate from Azerbaijan.

In such circumstances, in his farewell speech Armenia’s second
President Robert Kocharyan advanced the clear and
`initiating-the-attack’ policy regarding Karabakh issue. The separate
aspects of that policy became a matter of discussion in the National
Assembly and in general were included in the draft statement on `The
Announcement of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
Regarding the Settlement of Karabakh Conflict’. Tigran Torosyan, who
has submitted the before mentioned draft document, underscored three
crucial tasks faced by our country.

First: to make the process of providing information for the
international community and proposing political settlements more
active, by means of the country’s intellectual potential.

Second: To make Armenia’s policy on the settlement of Karabakh conflict
more vigorous and initiating.

Third: To start the formation of the legal-agreement base on the
complete guarantee of the security of Nagorno Karabakh people, by
Armenia.

The solution of the before mentioned three issues will never hinder the
peaceful settlement of Karabakh issue by means of negotiations and
Armenia’s commitment regarding the settlement of the conflict in the
scope of OSCE Minsk group.

Our country doesn’t intend to quit the negotiations first, but
meanwhile from now on it won’t adopt a passive stance towards
Azerbaijan’s unprecedented political, diplomatic and propagandist
activeness.

The before mentioned stances regarding Karabakh issue, for this moment
don’t give any grounds to think about the `toughening’ or all the more
as `mitigation’ of Armenia’s principle stances.

Even the proposal, being discussed by the Parliament, on the formation
of the legal-agreement base on the complete guarantee of the security
of NKR people, by Armenia, is still in the framework of the obligation
committed by Armenia to give peaceful, negotiation-based settlement to
the conflict.

The attempts of some people ascribing defeatist positions to Armenian
authorities are really strange and ridiculous. It is quite
comprehensible why on April 8 the radical opposition headed by Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, that usually appose the authorities in any issue, made
an announcement regarding Karabakh issue. He evidently hopes that in
the near future he will manage to use the negotiation process on
Karabakh issue as a new pressure on Armenian authorities.

It could also be quite `comprehensible’, had Ter-Petrosyan’s certain
supporters not advanced the distorted standpoint saying that allegedly
the fact that by now the West is not putting pressure on our country is
conditioned by the `preliminary arrangement between Serge Sargsyan and
the United States and maybe even the Europeans, regarding the final
settlement of Karabakh issue’. Which means the bright imagination of
some people is so `bright’ that they think Armenia’s new power is ready
to leave NKR in Azerbaijan, to avoid criticism in their address, linked
with the elections.

When the former Foreign Minister Vahan Papazyan expresses this idea, a
question arises: `Is this fantastic presumption related to the
present-day authorities, or some people simply remembered their mode of
action after the presidential elections of 1996?’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress