MIXED REACTION IN AZERI BREAKAWAY REGION’S MEDIA TO US OFFICIAL’S REMARKS
Kavkazskiy Uzel website
Aug. 5 2008
Russia
The Karabakh media are discussing a statement by the American
co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza, that the people
of Nagornyy Karabakh should themselves decide whether they should be
a part of Azerbaijan or to live independently.
The statement caused "raptures of delight" in Armenian political
circles and the pro-government media, writes the Karabakh correspondent
of the Armenian Lragir.am news agency website. In the opinion of a
representative of the bureau of the American Revolutionary Federation
– Dashnaktsutyun, Kiro Manoyan, Bryza said nothing new, and what’s
more, according to him, there is nothing positive for us in what he
had to say".
Kiro Manoyan stresses that the co-chairmen, when speaking
about Karabakh, think about the former NKAO [Nagornyy Karabakh
Autonomous Region], which is definitely not in the interests of the
Armenians. Within the framework of the former NKAO Nagornyy Karabakh
cannot implement its right to self-determination.
"In politics at large no-one goes by state borders. In politics at
large the world is divided into military-strategic and fuel-energy
entities. Each entity is a self-sufficient system with its own
communications, defence system, natural resources and the capability
of influencing other entities. Borders divide this entity into
several weak-willed states, each of which is of no use to anything
in isolation. In this context Karabakh, within the confines of the
NKAO, is not an entity, it is merely a part of it, like a disabled
person without arms and legs. In the big political map Karabakh may
be considered only in its current actual borders. They have, after
all, developed by accident. Somebody once drew a line on which the
fighting in 1994 was supposed to be stopped," the agency site writes.
In the paper’s opinion, to divide Nagornyy Karabakh into the NKAO
and "liberated" or "occupied territories" means pulling apart a
self-sufficient military-political entity. "And one has to think in
whose interests this is being done. And one cannot be pleased by the
statements of the cheerful American who, unlike our politicians, often
looks at the map and does not want to see a strong military-strategic
entity in the region." the paper notes.
The Aparazh newspaper, which is the organ of the Karabakh structure
of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, writes in its editor’s column, that in the
foreign policy of the Armenian states there should be a "red line",
which should not be crossed. This "red line" in the Karabakh question
is the security of the people of the NKR and the preservation of
statehood within the present borders. The paper urges the Karabakh
Foreign Ministry to carry out more active publicity in the outside
world to present the position of the NKR.
It will be recalled that on 1 August in Moscow, at the initiative of
the OSCE, a meeting was held of the foreign ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan, Edvard Nalbandyan and Elmar Mammadyarov.
At the end of the meeting US Assistant Deputy State Secretary Matthew
Bryza said that Karabakh would either achieve independence or transfer
to the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan. "A referendum will be held and
the Karabakhis themselves will decide," Bryza noted on the decision
regarding the status of the unrecognized republic.