ARMENIA HAS FAILED TO MAKE A CHOICE BETWEEN TERRITORIAL CLAIMS OR PEACE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SINCE END OF LAST CENTURY: U.S. EXPERT
Today.Az
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July 17 2009
Azerbaijan
U.S. political expert and senior research fellow at the Jamestown
Foundation Vladimir Sokor spoke in an exclusive interview with Day.Az.
Day.Az: Many accepted the recent visit by U.S. President Barack Obama
to Russia and agreements reached as a starting point of improving
relations between Moscow and Washington which is also expected to
have a good impact on joint solution of the problem. To what degree
the nature of the U.S-Russia relations, key mediators in the OSCE
Minsk Group, will impact resolution of the Karabakh problem?
Vladimir Sokor: I think that the solution does not depend or depends
to a small extent on the relationship between the United States and
Russia. No matter how these relations are developed, the settlement
of Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict must be reached on the spot, that
is not between Washington and Moscow but between the parties to the
negotiation process. So, I think, the bilateral relations between the
U.S. and Russia almost had no influence on multilateral negotiation
process on Karabakh.
Q: Can the Karabakh problem be solved by military ways?
A: I think is it early to talk about it. President Ilham Aliyev
has repeatedly said that Azerbaijan, as a sovereign nation, retains
the right to use military means and methods to solve the conflict,
that is to restore its territorial integrity. Azerbaijan has the
right to do so, but only when all political and diplomatic means are
exhausted. Search for these methods is continuing with the active
support of Azerbaijan.
Q: Meanwhile, Armenia continues to be worse off: it has remained
aloof from all regional projects and economic crisis is deepening
in the country. Can Armenians go to the solution of the conflict
sacrificing territorial claims in exchange for real prospects for
the normalization of life and economic growth?
A: This is a very complex issue that has been discussed at least
over the last 10 years. Even in 1997, 12 years ago, then President
of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan begun a public discussion on this
topic. According to his argument, Armenia should make this choice
between territorial ambitions, keeping of other people’s land, that
is the territory of Azerbaijan or normal development in economic and
social terms. Ter-Petrosyan said that Armenia should choose the second
option. And so he was overthrown. In 1999 the then Prime Minister of
Armenia Vazgen Sarkisian seemed to have come to the same conclusion
like Ter-Petrosyan. He wanted to begin a policy of rapprochement and
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This means the return
of five to six regions to Azerbaijan in the first phase. Vazgen
Sarkisyan was killed in the Parliament. This conspiracy has not yet
been disclosed.
So the debate continues over the years. Armenia is still faces the
same dilemma – the normal socio-economic development and the ambitions
of territorial expansion.