EDWARD NALBANDIAN: WE SHOULD NOT LEAVE BURDEN OF OUR DIFFERENCES AND PROBLEMS ON SHOULDERS OF COMING GENERATIONS

Noyan Tapan
May 18, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Creation of new dividing lines in the
region is unacceptable. And differences should be settled by peaceful
and political means. RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said
at the Security and Cooperation in and around the Caucasus two-day
International Conference held in Yerevan. In his words, threat of or
use of force for the solution of conflicts is not an alternative and
could seriously destabilize our region and have grave consequences.

According to RA Foreign Minister’s observation, the Caucasus needs
constructive ideas and initiatives, not violence. "Outbursts of
violence can only fuel new animosities, escalate new tensions, and
trigger new repulsive demonstrations of destruction. If we fail to come
to terms with the new realities and reshape our political thinking,
it would only mark a roll-back to the cold-war realities in this small
yet important corner of the world, with negative consequences for all,"
E. Nalbandian said.

He said that the wide-spread notions of security, stability
and cooperation have long been exhausted during the most recent
post-cold-war history of the region. For some, these have just been
routine notions repeated during political campaigns. For others,
Armenia being among them, they are vital issues. The foreign policy
and external security priorities for Armenia, therefore, include,
among others, the establishment of an overall regional security
and cooperation framework. This could be achieved through dialogue,
negotiations, alleviation of existing tensions and peaceful resolution
of conflicts.

E. Nalbandian stated that two main security challenges that are
of a paramount importance for Armenia are the peaceful and just
resolution of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict and the normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations. "These challenges are different, and by
no means interconnected, even if some would like to see a linkage or
parallelism in their resolution," the Minister said.

He recorded that in the international arena Azerbaijan consistently
misinterprets the essence of the Nagorno Karabakh problem,
trying to conceal the ethnic cleansing and its policy of violence
conducted against the people of Karabagh in 1988-1991. According
to E. Nalbandian, "consequently, these actions developed into open
aggression and large-scale hostilities against the people of Karabakh,
involving mercenaries closely linked to terrorist organizations,
and which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians."

According to the RA Foreign Minister, the Nagorno Karabakh problem
could have been solved as early as 2001, after the Paris and Key West
talks, when we were very close to the resolution, had the Azerbaijani
side not backtracked from the agreements. "Even today, we would have
been closer to the resolution if the co-chairs did not spent months
trying to convince the Azerbaijani side to negotiate on the basis of
the proposals put forward in 2007, and known as the Madrid document
the very existence of which Azerbaijani side had denied for months,"
E. Nalbandian said.

Concerning the Armenian-Turkish normalization process he said
that over the past year, following the initiative of the Armenian
President, together with our Turkish neighbors and with the help of
our Swiss partners "we have advanced towards opening one of the last
closed borders in Europe and normalization of our relations without
preconditions. The ball is in the Turkish side now. And we hope that
they will find the wisdom and the courage to make the last decisive
step. We wish to be confident that the necessary political will can
eventually leave behind the mentality of the past."

"We should not leave the burden of our differences and problems on the
shoulders of the coming generations. We must build bridges between
our nations, working out mutually beneficial regional cooperation
schemes. And our common objective should be shaping of a region that
is safe and prosperous for all," the RA Foreign Minister said.