OSCE MINSK GROUP LOSES ITS PRESTIGE BECAUSE OF THE CO-CHAIRS’ FREQUENT VISITS TO THE SOUTH CAUCASUS
By Nairi Muradian

AZG DAILY
06-03-2009

Karabakh conflict

"Arantsk" analytical center held yesterday discussions on Karabakh
issue at "Noravank" educational foundation.

General Arkadi Ter-Tadevosian, historian Samvel Karapetian and
politician Stepan Grigorian were the quest speakers of the discussion.

OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ frequent visits to the South Caucasus
was the subject of the discussion.

Head of Globalization and Regional Cooperation Analytical Center,
politician Stepan Grigorian does not approve similar working style of
the OSCE Minsk Group. According to him, the OSCE Minsk Group loses
its prestige because of the Co-chairs’ frequent visits to the South
Caucasus. The politician doesn’t anticipate any progress in the
negotiation process in the nearest future, and according to him,
one of the reasons of it is that Karabakh does not participate in
the negotiation process.

"The way out of the conflict also depends on Russia-Turkey
relations. The history confirms that Russian-Turkish close relations
never serve the interests of the Armenian people", the politician
underlined.

In this sense, according to him, Armenia should strive to involve more
countries in the process of Karabakh conflict settlement, including
Iran, USA and EU.

"Besides, the conflict settlement will also depend on how Armenia
and Azerbaijan, as well as Russia and other countries will overcome
the global economic crisis", Mr. Grigorian said.

According to Arkadi Ter-Tadevosian, even the smallest change of the
border will lead to negative results. "We should make no compromise,
as we have already lost a part of Martuni, Shahumian, Getashen and
other territories, our compromise is already in the hands of our
enemy", he said.

According to Arkadi Ter-Tadevosian, we shouldn’t blame Russia and we
should understand that it has its own interests in the region. What
about the solution of Karabakh conflict through military way,
Mr. Ter-Tadevosian considers it as meaningless, mentioning that if
Azerbaijan tries to make an attempt, it will be defeated this time
as well.

Historian Samvel Karapetian said that our mistake is that we don’t
know our motherland well. According to him, motherland is not a
territory to cede.

"We are the owners of these lands. And compromise is out of the
question. What is Azerbaijani territorial integrity? A country that
did not have a name and lands, and stole its name from Azerbaijan
(Iran) today on our lands speaks of territorial integrity", the
historian said.

The historian reminds that we have lost the Northern Artsakh, our
ancient thousand-year-old villages Chardakhlu, Katnaker, Dzagir
(Shamkhor region), Banants, Khachakap (Dashkesan region), about 15
villages, and also Getashen, Shahumian and Artsvashen regions.