DIPLOMATIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF ARMENIA AND NKR HAVE BEEN NEUTRALIZED BY SIGNING OF MOSCOW DECLARATION, POLITECONOMIA NGO STATES

Noyan Tapan

Nov 5, 2008

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN. Having analysed the Declaration
on settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict which was signed by
the presidents Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliyev and Dmitry Medvedev in
Moscow on November 2, "Politeconomia" Political, Economic and Legal
Research Institute NGO expressed its concern about some wordings of
the declaration.

According to a statement issued by the NGO, the following wordings
of the Declaration cause concern:

1. The first clause of the Declaration, in particular, says that "the
resolution of the conflict will be carried out based on the norms
and principles of international law, and the decisions and documents
passed within this framework".

During the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly on March 14,
2008, decision No 62/243 (The Situation in the Occupied Territories
of Azerbaijan) was adopted, by which, in particular, Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity within the internationally accepted borders
was recognized, as well as it was demanded that the Armenian forces
should be withdrawn fully, immediately and unconditionally from the
Republic of Azerbaijan. And if, by signing the Moscow Declaration,
Serzh Sargsian agrees to see the political settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict based on the so far adopted international documents
on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, it means that Azerbaijan has now
received an opportunity to put the above mentioned decision of the UN
as the basis of the negotiation process. This does not proceed from
the interests of the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic and may contribute to the use of the principle of territorial
integrity put forward by Azerbaijan.

2. Regardless of what kind of process will start by the signing of
the Moscow Declaration, it is worrying that the Republic of Armenia,
through Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s signature, has ratified
a document, in which the presence of Nagorno Karabakh in the form of
a signature of NKR’s official representative is absent.

So far there was no other document on settlement of the conflict
related to the NKR, in which the signature of an official
representative of the NKR was absent. It means that the Armenian
leadership "de jure" accepted the fact of the NKR’s being forced
out of the negotiation process, so the process of involving the NKR
at any negotiation stage will become complicated in the future. It
should also be mentioned that during the terms of presidents Levon
Ter-Petrosian and Robert Kocharian, no document without a signature of
the NKR representative was signed. Both presidents repeatedly stated
that Armenia would not sign an agreement, in which the will of the
NKR’s people is absent.

Both the Bishkek Protocol of May 5, 1994, and the Document on
Ceasefire, which was signed in Baku, Yerevan and in Stepanakert
on May 9, 10 and 11 of 1994, bear the signatures of the official
representatives of the NKR. That is, these documents stipulate the
NKR as a full subject of the conflict. The indicated documents also
bear the signatures of the official representatives of the Azeri
side, that is, Azerbaijan at least "de facto" recognized the NKR as
a subject of intenational law.

Politeconomia NGO believes that after the signing of the Moscow
Declaration, the Azeri side has reached a document that has neutralized
the previous diplomatic achievements of the Republic of Armenia and
the NKR. The NGO calls on all the organizations and persons concened
about the Nagorno Karabakh problem and the whole people to unite their
efforts in order to neutralize the dangers threatening the national
security system.