IN THE STATUS OF A WHITE CROW
Lilit Poghosyan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
12 Nov 08
Armenia
The Russian, Armenian and Azeri Presidents’ heated discussions over
the Moscow Declaration became the litmus test revealing or rather,
reiterating L. Ter-Petrosyan and his company’s loneliness in their
ambitions of "selling" Karabakh.
The native political forces and society in general are against the
ideology of solving the Artsakh issue ahead of time and thus getting
rid of both Karabakh and the Karabakh problem. And no matter how much
the pro-Levon activist may make titanic efforts pretending that they
are the defenders of Artsakh, the reality is that these people have
again found themselves in the status of white crows 10 years after
their quitting the political arena in an undignified manner. Judge
yourselves.
The Republican Party of Armenia, in the person of Serge Sargsyan,
definitely announced that it is ready for mutual vs. unilateral
concessions, and unlike the members and supporters of the Armenian
Pan-National Movement, it has no intention to retreat from the
fundamental security principles established by the independence of
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, its land border with Armenia and the
international guarantees.
The Declaration was valued inasmuch as it provided for the political
settlement of the conflict in the frameworks of a peaceful process,
and last but not the least, it proved the inefficiency of Azerbaijan’s
tricks of renouncing the Minsk Group format and transferring the
issue to other international tribunals.
Approving the constructive clauses of the document, Dashnaktsutyun
nevertheless expressed certain concerns, in particular with regard to
the issue that the document didn’t contain the signature of the NKR
President, that’s to say, the role of Karabakh as the main subject of
the conflict was ignored. At the same time, it considered the clauses
concerning the unilateral return of the liberated territories and
the Azeri refugees unacceptable.
"Heritage" faction, in the person of Raffi Hovhannisyan, was also
against the unilateral concession of the territories and the return
of the "Azeri refugees" to their former places of residence. The
party supported its stance by saying that those issues have to be
resolved in a broader context, with the involvement of the Armenian,
Turkish and Azerbaijani parties.
As to the extra-parliamentary factions, their attitudes are also
well-known.
Paruyr Hayrikyan, leader of the National Self-Determination Union,
gave the best formulation to senselessness of the prospect of settling
the Karabakh issue "within two months". He said that demonstrating
unnecessary haste in this matter was the same as handing over Karabakh.
The only "political force" that agrees to any option of conflict
settlement and hurries to close the Karabakh issue following
"the-sooner-the-better" principle and start Armenia’s newest history
from a blank page, i.e. without the entangled string of Karabakh,
is LTP together with his co-thinkers.
LTP is so obsessed with the idea of putting an end to the Karabakh
conflict that without considering the opinion of his allies, he hurried
to discontinue the demonstrations so as not to prevent the authorities
from signing the so-called "Dayton agreement" by the end of the year.
Even Zhirayr Sefilyan and Vahan Shirkhanyan, who were enlisted to the
congress, protested against him by setting up a new "pro-Karabakh"
union and supporting the slogan "No single inch from the liberated
territories".
Thus, everything was settled. LTP and the sworn members and supporters
of the Armenian pan-National Movement remained the only people in
the camp of those desiring to cede Karabakh.