Sergey Shakaryants: Many seem to have forgotten that Karabakh war was
unleashed by Azerbaijan
06.02.2010 15:12 GMT+04:00 l

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ According `Forgotten Victims of Frozen Conflict’
Euronews reportage of February 1, Armenia failed to fulfill 4 UNO
resolutions on cessation of hostilities and return of territories to
Azerbaijan. Yet, they obviously forgot that the first 3 resolutions
were passed in the first half of 1993, when Azerbaijan acted as an
attacker, seizing almost half of Nagorno Karabakh territory,
politologist Sergey Shakaryants said.

`Naturally, NKR defence army had to protect itself, and was not in a
position to cease military actions,’ Armenian politologist said,
adding that the 4th resolution, too, was adopted after 1993, after
Azerbaijan’s resumption of hostilities.

`Many seem to have forgotten that the war was ceased only upon Russian
Defence Minister Pavel Grachev’s inviting Armenian, Azeri and NKR
Defence Ministers to Moscow, where Safar Abiyev was forbidden to leave
Moscow unless he agrees to sign Protocol on ceasefire,’ Sergey
Shakaryants emphasized.

UNO General Assembly passed 4 resolutions on Nagorno Karabakh, all of
them adopted before 1994 and containing stipulations both on Armenia
and Karabakh conflict. UNO resolutions are advisory of nature and
carry no binding character.

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, sealed by Armenia, NKR and
Azerbaijan, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan
around it (the security zone) remain under the control of NKR defence
army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the
OSCE Minsk Group up till now.