KARABAKH OFFICIAL LOOKS AT ARMENIAN PRESIDENT’S STAND ON AZERI POLICY
By Kim Gabrielyan
Azg
Oct 3 2008
Armenia
Vahram Atanesyan, the foreign affairs committee head of the Nagornyy
Karabakh parliament, has said that while saying that Azerbaijan’s
possible investment in Karabakh may add to local security, Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan wanted to let the world verify Azerbaijan’s
tolerance and readiness to establish relations with the breakaway
region.
According to Atanesyan, Sargsyan said this because he seeks to fix
Karabakh’s position on paper as a de-facto side to the talks on its
status. Previously, Atanesyan assumed, Karabakh was a side to such
talks only because Azerbaijan was still hoping the issue would be
settled with respect to its territorial integrity. However, currently
the sides "lack tolerance", he added.
Atanesyan said that the super powers, NATO and Russia, have exhausted
their limit of mutual attacks by recognizing Kosovo and Ossetia and
Abkhazia respectively, and are trying to prove that they are able
to settle issues "by consensus" as well. Taking into account that
Azerbaijan is an important energy resource producer and distributor for
both the West and Russia, Atanesyan believes that they can be looking
for such consensus in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. In
this context, the political initiative of the Armenian president seems
reasonable and represents a serious challenge to Azerbaijan, he added.
He said that after the Armenian president’s statement, "the ball is now
in the opponent’s field" and from now on the Karabakh negotiations will
focus on the following issue: "Whether Azerbaijan is capable of real
tolerance, is it ready to establish relations with Nagornyy Karabakh,
is it ready to accept the will of the Nagornyy Karabakh people or not"?
There is no alternative to the international recognition of Nagornyy
Karabakh’s independence, but regional instability and a threat of
resumed hostilities, which not only regional players, but also the
super powers concerned would like to avoid, Atanesyan concluded.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
