ARMEN MARTIROSYAN: LEAVING NKR AS PART OF AZERBAIJAN WILL BE EQUAL TO NEW GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.01.2010 11:46 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Heritage party board chairman Armen Martirosyan
sent a letter to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to remind them of the
genocidal policy Azerbaijan has been implementing against Armenians
for many years.
"Heritage stands for recognition of NKR borders as they are fixed in
Artsakh’s Constitution. Everyone who develops principles for resolution
of the Karabakh conflict should know that leaving NKR as a part of
Azerbaijan will be equal to a new genocide," Mr. Martirosyan said.
Founded in 2002, Heritage , a National Liberal Party, is national by
its roots, liberal in its economic principle, and an advocate of the
democratic system of governance and due process for its citizens. The
party’s objective is the development of Armenia as a democratic,
lawful, and rights-based country that anchors its domestic and foreign
policies in the nation’s sovereign interest. During the party’s Third
Congress on May 30, 2005, Raffi K. Hovannisian was elected chairman.
The other eight members of the party board were elected by secret vote.
The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out in 1988
as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the final
years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 to
1994. Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several
regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the
control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan have
since been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, now Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated
resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
On 6 December 1994, the Budapest Summit decided to establish a
co-chairmanship for the process.
Implementing the Budapest decision, the Chairman-in-Office issued on
23 March 1995, the mandate for the Co-Chairmen of the Minsk Process.
The main objectives of the Minsk Process are as follows: Providing
an appropriate framework for conflict resolution in the way of
assuring the negotiation process supported by the Minsk Group;
Obtaining conclusion by the Parties of an agreement on the cessation
of the armed conflict in order to permit the convening of the Minsk
Conference; Promoting the peace process by deploying OSCE multinational
peacekeeping forces.
The Minsk Process can be considered to be successfully concluded if
the objectives referred to above are fully met.
The Minsk Group is headed by a Co-Chairmanship consisting of France,
Russia and the United States. Furthermore, the Minsk Group also
includes the following participating States: Belarus, Germany, Italy,
Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Turkey as well as Armenia
and Azerbaijan. Current Co-chairmen of the Minsk Group are: Ambassador
Bernard Fassier of France, Ambassador Yuri Merzlyakov of the Russian
Federation and Ambassador Robert Bradtke of the United States.