PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
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11 November 2008
Heritage Executive Board’s Statement on the Meiendorf Declaration
Yerevan–The Heritage Party finds that the declaration signed on November 2,
2008 at the Meiendorf Castle outside Moscow by the Armenian president Serzh
Sargsyan, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, and Russian president Dmitry
Medvedev undermines the mission to maintain peace, bring Karabagh’s
decolonization process to fruition, and achieve international recognition
for its independence.
1. Heritage believes that the Meiendorf Declaration is only the latest
manifestation of the trend toward protecting the interests of the
superpowers at the cost of the national interests of Armenia and Mountainous
Karabagh. This trend previously was championed by the West, but now enjoys
the subscription also of Russia, which has since 2002 linked its national
security with Armenia’s within the context of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO). This trend became all the more official with the
declaration on "Friendship and Strategic Partnership between the Republic of
Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation," which the Azerbaijani and Russian
presidents signed in Baku on July 3. This document specifically noted that
"Russia and Azerbaijan deem necessary the Mountainous Karabagh conflict’s
quick resolution based on the universally recognized norms and precepts of
international law and, first and foremost, on the basis of securing and
respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries, the
invariability of boundaries, and also based on the relevant UN Security
Council resolutions and OSCE decisions. The sides will assist in the speedy,
voluntary, and safe return of the refugees and people who were displaced as
a consequence of the conflict." It is disturbing that the formulations made
in the Baku accord have been transferred, with mere touch-ups, to the
Meiendorf Declaration.
2. In actual fact, the signing of the Meiendorf Declaration also extorted
official Yerevan’s positive outlook on the Madrid Principles, which formally
were presented to the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents on November 29,
2007. The bodies politic of Armenia and Mountainous Karabagh, by contrast,
are to date uninformed of their content. The Heritage Party is seriously
concerned that the precepts fixed in this document do not guarantee the just
resolution of the Karabagh conflict. How could they be, when Armenia’s
authorities have signed the agreement without asking for the support of the
people of Armenia and Mountainous Karabagh? The proposed succession–"firstly
the elimination of the consequences of the conflict and, only after that,
the determination of Karabagh’s status"–of the Madrid principles is the
best proof that the superpowers which compete in this region have no
interest in legitimizing the statehood of Karabagh. On the contrary, the
superpowers are primed to continue to wield their influence and play their
energy games. This unfortunate turn of events unfolds precisely at the time
when the recognition of Karabagh’s status is a priority issue for the
Armenian and Karabagh sides. The Madrid Principles, the contents of which we
were able to ascertain through non-official channels, are unacceptable to
the Heritage Party. No Armenian government should accept them as a
foundation for talks. Heritage believes that the unilateral return of
territories and refugees, as well as the delay in determining the status of
Mountainous Karabagh, are unacceptable. Heritage firmly condemns the
acceptance of those principles by the Armenian authorities, and warns of the
beginnings of irreversible processes which run counter to the interests of
Armenia and the Mountainous Karabagh Republic (MKR).
3. The current Karabagh talks in reality have no connection whatsoever with
securing a just settlement, achieving stabilitity and peace in the region,
and fostering the much-anticipated reconciliation of the Armenian and
Azerbaijani people. Moreover, Mountainous Karabagh’s absence from the talks
has become for all the superpowers a currency of "payment" and "repayment"
for receiving Azerbaijan’s support for new energy routes. Consequently, the
Heritage party can neither approve of the Meiendorf Declaration, nor trust
that it will bring about the "normalizing of the situation in South Caucasus
and establishing an environment of peace and security in the region" and
begetting "conditions for carrying out measures toward consolidating peace."
Heritage does not have faith in the real and immediate intentions of
official Moscow–which has become the architect of this declaration–and of
official Brussels, Washington, and Paris–which have approved this document.
NATO, the United States, and France know all too well that the fragile peace
maintained in the region since 1994 is the result of a trilateral agreement
which, likewise by Russian mediation, was signed among the official
representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Mountainous Karabagh, and that
the latter not only is the beneficiary of regional security but also the
protector of regional peace.
4. It is apparent from the Meiendorf Declaration, which enjoys the signature
of only one country from the OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairs, that Russia, the
signator, seeks to create parallel platforms for high-level and lower-level
"direct talks" between Armenia and Azerbaijan, through which it will
gradually redener obsolete the format of the Minsk Group. From its
long-standing criticisms of the OSCE to its formal letter sent to the
organization last year, Azerbaijan openly shares this objective. And now
Turkey, too, has joined Russia and Azerbaijan, which have reached a silent
consensus on the basis of this interest. The official, societal, and
political circles of Armenia have stated numerous times that the OSCE is the
best format for resolving the problem and that the talks again must include
Mountainous Karabagh as a full and equal side to the settlement discussions.
Heritage deplores the fact that Armenia’s administration continually
contributes to the distortion of those formats, and affirms that this is a
result of myopic policy–which still is conducted with respect to the
Karabagh question–including the refusal to consider Heritage’s draft law
formally to recognize the independence of MKR.
5. The Heritage Party calls on the authorities of Armenia to acknowledge the
aforesaid perils and to transfer the discussion of and solution to the
problem back into the officially authorized format–that is, the Minsk Group
and the juridical platform–to secure the real conflicting sides’
participation to the talks, and to decipher the Madrid Principles and offer
them for broad public discussion.
Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the land. Its
central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan 0002, Armenia,
with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at (374-10) 532.697, email
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