CO-CHAIRS DISTORTED CORE OF ISSUE

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09:01 pm | March 19, 2009

Politics

The "Refugees and International Right" system expresses its concerns
about the approaches of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group, the Azeri
authorities, as well as the stance of the Armenian and Karabakh
authorities.

As stated in the statement of the system, during their last regional
visit the co-chairs of the Minsk Group distorted the core of the
issue regarding refugees and scrutinized it within the context of
the return of Azeri refugees to their previous homes in the current
Nagorno-Karabakh territory and evaded recalling the need to defend
the rights and interests of half a million Azeri refugees.

"All sides of the peace talks remind that according to the official
statistics of Azerbaijan, the number of refugees registered in
the country makes up only 8,000 people of which a large part is
Azeri. The co-chairs "revived" the still-born idea according to which
the participation of NKR in the talks will be possible only under
the condition of complete participation of the "Azeri district of
Nagorno-Karabakh" NGO.

Judging from the logic of the co-chairs’ proposals, all Azeri who
have left their residencies must return, while the Azeri who used
to live in the former Autonomous Region of Nagorno-Karabakh will be
considered the Azeri community of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, there
is nothing mentioned about the rights of native Armenians of Northern
Artsakh or at least the need to secure the right of tens of thousands
of Armenians who have been deported from the Shahumyan region and the
Getashen sub-region to return to their homes. It is noteworthy that
when the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs is asked about the fate of
the Azeri-Armenian refugees, he avoids giving an answer and justifies
that by the need to keep the details of the talks confidential.

We insist that Armenian and NKR officials connected to the peace talks
must attach special importance to the issue of defending the rights
of Armenian refugees. We demand the release of information on the
details of the peace talks, which will help prevent the possibility
of sealing a secret deal by violating the interests of our half a
million fellow Armenians," as stated in the statement.