NON-RECOGNITION OF KARABAKH HARMFUL FOR BAKU

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.01.2009 15:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan’s bellicose statements are meant to
blackmail the international community, an NKR official said.

"Baku calls for resumption of war, incites armed provocations at
the border, purchases armament from Ukraine, Turkey and Israel,
develops bellicose rhetoric and racist anti-Armenian propaganda,"
Ruben Zargaryan, historian and adviser to Foreign Minister of the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic, said in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net.

"Azeri leadership’s regular calls for elimination of Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh conflict with the international community’s values
and criteria," he said.

"Recognition of NKR independence by Azerbaijan would put an end to
the century-old hostility, prevent a new war and resolve the refugee
problem. It would secure sovereignty of Azerbaijan and Nagorno
Karabakh, economic reforms, civilized borders, neighborly relations
and cooperation," Zargaryan said.

Full text of the interview

Ruben Zargaryan:

Karabakh people hold the key to conflict resolution The Nagorno
Karabakh problem doesn’t lose urgency in 2009. Despite optimistic
statements by the international mediators, its resolution is still
a long way off. The regional visit of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs
and the impending meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents
in Davos do not promise a breakthrough. PanARMENIAN.Net requested
Ruben Zargaryan, historian and adviser to Foreign Minister of the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic, to comment on the current situation.

20.01.2009 GMT+04:00 Some forces in Yerevan say that the key to the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict is in the hands of world powers. How would
you comment this statement?

Unfortunately, such statements demonstrate disbelief and lack of
professionalism in analysis of global political processes. The history
of Armenia has shown that confidence in decisions of the world powers
results in calamity.

Determination of Nagorno Karabakh’s status is the exclusive right of
its people, who hold the key to to their homeland. The issue has been
already resolved through formation of independent Karabakh Republic.

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic is a state with its own national
interests, the fact acknowledged by many countries. The Convention on
the Rights and Duties of States was a treaty (which was later accepted
as part of customary international law) signed at Montevideo, Uruguay,
on December 26, 1933 reads that "the political existence of the state
is independent of recognition by the other states."

The Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict can’t be resolved without soonest
recognition of NKR independence and its full-fledged participation in
talks. At that, NKR recognition should be the starting point but not
the final one. Upon fulfillment of these two fundamental conditions,
other complicated issues such as territories, refugees and borders.

Independence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic cannot be questioned. A
peace agreement meeting the interests of the people of Artsakh and
Azerbaijan should be signed as soon as possible.

To secure international recognition of Karabakh, systematic and
purposeful work is needed.

To what extent are the Armenian leaders authorized to sign documents
on behalf of NKR?

The most important factor is the contents of a document. Recognition of
NKR independence should be the starting point, I repeat. Azerbaijan
is using the current format with a purpose to present Armenia as
an aggressor.

Any document loses its value if not signed by Nagorno Karabakh
and is a violation of internationally recognized Nagorno
Karabakh-Armenia-Azerbaijan trilateral format of talks.

In his New Year’s speech Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said his
country "will never agree to Karabakh’s independence"…

Such statements are made to blackmail the international community. Baku
calls for resumption of war, incites armed provocations at the border,
purchases armament from Ukraine, Turkey and Israel, develops bellicose
rhetoric and racist anti-Armenian propaganda.

Azeri leadership’s regular calls for elimination of Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh conflict with the international community’s values
and criteria.

Recognition of NKR independence by Azerbaijan would put an end to
the century-old hostility, prevent a new war and resolve the refugee
problem. It would secure sovereignty of Azerbaijan and Nagorno
Karabakh, economic reforms, civilized borders, neighborly relations
and cooperation.

Recent statement by a Kazakh diplomat that Astana equates the
principle of territories integrity with the right of nations to
self-determination aroused a wave of indignation in Azeri media. Isn’t
it the time to produce forcible arguments against Azerbaijan’s
notorious territorial integrity?

You are right. Recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic doesn’t
violate Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and doesn’t threaten its
existence. The principle of territorial integrity is not applicable
to Azerbaijan by a number of reasons. Above all, Nagorno Karabakh
has never been de jure part of Azerbaijan.

Bogged down in continuous threats, Baku officials undermine the talks
and neglect the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, including those
of peaceful resolution of conflicts and non-use of force.

Meanwhile, the international law says that the principle of
territorial integrity doesn’t run counter to the right of nations
to self-determination.

Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and even Kosovo proclaimed
independence irrespective of the position of former mother countries,
what conforms to new international approaches to democracy principles,
human rights protection, ethnic peace and regional stability.

The Kosovo model is classified as UDI (Unilateral Declaration of
Independence). I would like to emphasize that the international
law doesn’t have norms which oblige a self-determined state to ask
for mother country’s permission to secede. And last but not least,
by its democratic development index, Nagorno Karabakh passes ahead
of Kosovo. The same refers to Serbia and Azerbaijan.

With Turkey’s help, Azerbaijan spreads lies about Armenia and
Artsakh. Do you think that Armenia’s reaction is adequate? Many hold
an opinion that Armenia lost the information war to Azerbaijan. Is
it so and what should be done to change the situation?

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. Azerbaijan’s
attempts to present Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh as its lands should
be stopped and condemned.

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.

It’s also important to remember 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.

Now, it 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.