KARABAKH PUSHED ASIDE FROM NEGOTIATIONS?

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[01:51 pm] 04 November, 2008

Some formulations made in the declaration signed by Presidents
Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliev and Dmitri Medvedev in Moscow regarding
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement raise issues of concern,
according to the "Politeconomia" political, economic and legal research
institute. The institute has made a statement in which it states:

1. In the first point of the declaration it is stated that the
settlement of the conflict will be implemented based on the norms
and principles of international law, as well as the resolutions and
documents approved in the framework of those norms and principles." Let
us recall that on March 14, 2008, the UN General Assembly approved
the 62/243 resolution (Situation in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan), which recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
in the internationally recognized limits, as well as presented a demand
for the complete, unreserved and immediate dislocation of Armenian
forces from Azerbaijan. If Serzh Sarkissian agrees to see the political
settlement of the conflict based on the internationally approved
documents relating to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, that means that
Azerbaijan now has the opportunity to put the UN resolution as a basis
in the negotiations process. This is not to the benefit of Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh and may contribute to the application of the principle
of territorial integrity brought up by Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict based on the international documents relating to

2. Regardless of what the Moscow declaration will bring, what concerns
us is the fact that with the signing of RA President Serzh Sarkissian,
the Republic of Armenia has validated a document which leaves out
Nagorno-Karabakh, in other words, the signature of the official
representative of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Let us note that until now, there has not been any other document for
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, which doesn’t include the
signature of the official representative of NKR. This means that the
RA authorities have accepted de yure the fact that NKR is not part
of the negotiations process and that sets barriers for the NKR to be
involved in any negotiation to be held in the future. It is already
clear that no such document has been signed during the terms of Levon
Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan and they have always declared that
Armenia will not sign any document, which doesn’t take into account
the will of the people of NKR.

Let us recall that there are signatures of official NKR representatives
in the protocol signed in Bishkek on May 5, 1994, the agreement
signed in Baku and Yerevan on May 9, 10, 11, 1994 and the document on
"Ceasefire" in Stepanakert.

Now, after the signing of the declaration in Moscow, the Azeri side
has a document, which throws on the sidelines the achievements of
Armenian and Karabakh diplomacy made until now . We call on all
organizations and individuals concerned about the NKR conflict,
as well as the Armenian people to consolidate forces in order to
neutralize the dangers facing national security."