AZERBAIJAN’S ATTEMPTS TO PRESENT ARMENIA AND NAGORNO KARABAKH AS ITS LANDS SHOULD BE STOPPED AND CONDEMNED

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.01.2009 16:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan is methodically and aggressively polluting
the international information and political filed with its illegal
theses about its alleged right to make decisions on the status of
Karabakh, an NKR official said.

"Azerbaijan’s attempts to present Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh as
its lands should be stopped and condemned. Independence and security
of NKR is not an article of commerce," Ruben Zargaryan, historian
and adviser to Foreign Minister of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic,
said in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net.

"I should also mention that officials of some European countries are
not aware of the conflict and do not have a considered position on
the issue," he added.

He also reminded that Nagorno Karabakh has wider borders than the
former NKAO and present-day NKR. Under the international law, Nagorno
Karabakh has the right to restore its territorial integrity within
its historical borders, as it was annexed to Azerbaijan by the Soviet
rule in 1921. The Azeri-Karabakh conflict started in 1918 but not in
1988 as it is presented by the Azeri propaganda machine.

"Russia and West, from various positions, draw parallels between
"uniqueness of Kosovo model" and Abkhazia and South Ossetia. They use
terms like ‘genocide’, ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘humanitarian catastrophe’,
‘status is a factor of security’. However, they cynically hush up
the ordeals that befell the people of Arstakh and the crimes the
Azerbaijani government committed against the Armenians," Zargaryan
said, adding that it is important to bring to the notion of the
international community that Nagorno Karabakh is no more a conflict
zone but a developing entity, attractive for investments and tourism.

"The necessity to classify the principles of the conflict settlement
and introduce them into the peace process has matured. Civilized and
lasting resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should base on
the following principles: determination of NKR status, recognition
of NKR by Azerbaijan and by the international community, restoration
of NKR territorial integrity, international guarantees of NKR people
security, resolution of the refugee problem in the framework of a
peaceful agreement between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan," he said.