AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT MAY ANNUL DECISION ABOUT TRANSFERRING ZANGEZUR TO ARMENIA

news.az
Tue 08 December 2009

Gultekin Hajibeyli Interview with Gultekin Hajibeyli, deputy chairman
of Azerbaijani Parliament committee on international relations and
interparliamentary ties.

The Karabakh conflict has started 20 years ago while the OSCE Minsk
Group that has been meditating it settlement is almost 18 years old.

The group has yet failed to attain a breakthrough in the conflict
settlement. Is it not time to transfer the settlement mission to the
UN Security Council?

I think Minsk group’s activity in the past period showed that its
purpose is not to attain settlement but to create a visibility of
efforts in this direction. The periodical visits of the MG co-chairs
to the region, statements of the frequently replaced co-chairs showed
that it is senseless to expect this formation to provide assistance to
the fair resolution of the conflict. It is not surprising considering
that the countries with traditionally strong Armenian Diasporas are
represented among the three MG co-chairs. As is known, the French
Senate has recently recognized the mythical "Armenian genocide". It
would have been logical to include Turkey into the list of the
co-chairs to attain a balance in mediation. But nothing of this kind
is done. Therefore, the sole familiarization with the list of the
Minsk Group co-chairs shows the direction in which the settlement
process is held.

You have mentioned France, but the third co-chair-the United States-has
not yet made any serious pressure on aggressor Armenia…

Right. The United States have long been allocating direct financial
assistance to the occupational regime in Nagorno Karabakh under
pretense of the humanitarian aide. In other words, it would be naïve
to expect from the OSCE Minsk Group to make a significant contribution
to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict with such composition.

Obviously, there are two variants of settlement: concessions from
Azerbaijan’s part which would mean capitulation and disavowal of
occupational policy by Armenia. Though the recent events show that it
would be very difficult to call Armenia encouraged by the superpowers
to order and peace

The MG co-chairs state that the so-called corridor of 15 km in width
will be created in the Lachin region of Azerbaijan and transferred
under Armenian controll. Is there is a notion of "a corridor" in the
international law?

No, there is no. And certainly, there is a question: then why not
open a corridor between the main part of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan
Autonomous Republic that was isolated from the rest part in the result
of the transfer of ancient Azerbaijani lands of Zangezur to Armenia
under the Soviet regime? Who has said that the security of Karabakh
Armenia is more important than the security of 400,000 Azerbaijanis
residing in Nakhchivan? In fact, the transfer of the "Lachin corridor"
under Armenian control means the transfer of the whole Lachin region
to Armenia which is obviously inadmissible

By the way, in the early 1990s it was proposed to create another
corridor linking Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan via Megri.

The territory of the former Zangezur, which is a part of ancient
Azerbaijani lands, was presented to Armenia as a "gift" on 1 December
1922 on occasion of the anniversary of establishment of the Soviet
regime in this country. I think as today the Azerbaijani Republic
is a successor of the Azerbaijan People’s Republic of 1918-1920 that
involved Zangezur, we can raise this issue in the legal area.

Moreover, the corridor via Megri will not only annul the enclave
situation of Nakhchivan but also lead to the closer neighborhood of
Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Do you think such script is possible?

Certainly, it is not. On the whole, the mass settlement of Armenians in
the South Caucasus with the further creation of the artificial Armenian
state in the ancient Azerbaijani .lands and the further establishment
of the Armenian autonomy in another Azerbaijani region – Karabakh-
for the purpose of creating conditions for new annexation of the
Azerbaijani lands-aims at creating a barrier between Azerbaijan and
Turkey and preventing their integration.

Can the Azerbaijani parliament annul the political and legal acts
on the transfer of Azerbaijani lands to Armenia adopted by the USSR
government?

This is a principal issue. Milli Medjlis (Azerbaijani Parliament)
can at least annul the decision about transferring Zangezur to Armenia.

The situation about Irevan which was surrendered by the government of
the Azerbaijan People’s Republic in 1918 due to political expediency
is quite different. The thing is that a fierce fight was conducted at
that time for Baku and the situation was that there could have been
created serious problems with recognition of this city as a capital
of Azerbaijan at the Versailles peace conference. As we have already
mentioned, Zangezur was transferred after creation of the USSR and
I think we can and must return to this issue.