PRINCIPLES ARE TO BE CHANGED

Lragir.am
05/12/09

On 4 December 2009, a session of the board of the NKR non-governmental
organizations and civil experts took place in Stepanakert.

In the course of the meeting issues concerning the current phase of
negotiations of the Azeri-Karabakh conflict, as well as the radical
statements of the authorities of Azerbaijan and the violent,
revenge-seeking attitudes in the Azerbaijani press.

It was noted that we can consider this conduct of the official Baku
and its blackmail as a call to Yerevan and intermediaries and as a
traditional way to settle Azerbaijan’s internal problems. Baku cannot
conceal the political sense of discomfort due to the beginning of the
process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey, and the
`military hype’ of the Azerbaijani media- a kind of hysterical
reaction to the situation which is estimated as a deadlock for the
Azerbaijani diplomacy.

However, the participants of the meeting expressed confidence that the
Karabakh society should not only consider the realities on the basis
of these assumptions. The historical experience of living together
with Azerbaijan proves that the threats of our neighbors remain only
threats. The NKR society should be maximally mobilized, but also it is
to use all available means and tools to prevent any possible
aggression which does not solve the problem but only exacerbate its
decision, not to mention the unpredictable in scale tragic
consequences.

In this regard, the participants of the session also expressed
bewilderment and incomprehension in connection with the reaction of
formal and informal international institutions, and, in particular,
the OSCE Minsk Group. According to the experts, the military threats
posed by the Azerbaijani authorities already destabilize the region
and violate all agreements and documents signed by the representatives
of the supreme executive power of middlemen which means that their
responsibility for what happens. Views were expressed that as long as
the international community will not give an objective assessment of
the causes and development of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, the
Azerbaijani escalation of the conflict will remain a threat over the
entire Caucasus region.

At the meeting of the Council were also discussed prospects for the
continuation of civil dialogue between the conflicting parties, the
silence of the representatives of the social movements of Azerbaijan
was assessed unacceptable. The absolute lack of response to the
statements of the authorities could be taken as consent to the
military scenario which does not promote the establishment of
atmosphere of tolerance between the conflicting societies.

The speakers stressed that the European institutions, planning
programs to work with the societies in the region of conflict, should
use their influence to avoid any possibility of radicalization of the
political background which can cause the failure of any peace
initiatives.

In discussing the latest developments in the negotiations – namely,
the results of meetings between the presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan in Munich and the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan in Athens, the meeting highlighted the following:

The joint statement issued in Athens shows the world’s attention to
the Karabakh problem and the desire to achieve an early agreement on
basic principles for a settlement. However, there are many doubts
about the possibility of achieving a breakthrough in the
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement because the dialogue continues in the
inferior format, the basic principles of settlement are unrealistic
and the methodology adopted by the international mediators cannot
resolve to make serious progress in this process. On the
inadmissibility of the Madrid principles and their not being realistic
was mentioned more than once. Therefore it is necessary to reconsider
the principles of the settlement, the current negotiating framework,
as well as the approaches of the intermediaries.

No one can force us to withdraw from the liberated territories,
violating our own Constitution. Therefore, mediators from the OSCE
must look for other solutions, for example, to use new trends in
international politics, like we have witnessed in the past year. These
are the precedents of Kosovo, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The meeting participants called on the authorities of the Republic of
Armenia to seek review of the Madrid principles for settlement of the
current negotiating format, as well as approaches of the
intermediaries. In particular, it was also suggested: that the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic regained its status as a conflicting party,
which, incidentally, is recognized in the decisions and other
documents of the OSCE and the UN, the two Armenian states should
allocate their roles and responsibilities in the negotiation process.
Those key issues that will be charged within the purview of the NKR
authorities should not be discussed in the leadership of RA nor with
intermediaries or representatives of Azerbaijan. In this case,
Karabakh will be invited to the negotiating table. Thus, using the
internal resource of the NKR and Armenia the restoration of
subjectivity of Nagorno-Karabakh can be achieved.

If Azerbaijan starts a new military aggression against
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, then no one can guarantee how the duration
of the war and its outcome will be. Baku cannot rely on `small
victorious war’. Given the lessons of the military capabilities of the
parties, the quality of forces and means, it can be argued that a new
war would have disastrous results for the region. Therefore, the most
important priority for the international mediators and interested
regional powers, in parallel with the search for mutually acceptable
principles of conflict resolution should be to implement measures to
prevent a new war.