Analysis
18 MAY 2018
The
change of power in Armenia presented in a new light the most crucial problems
of the Armenian statehood – the problems of the political state of the NKR and
the settlement of international conflict relations around it. The former
configuration of the Karabakh factor was disrupted. The approaches to the place
and role of the NKR in the state policy of Armenia and in international
relations have lost their relevance. A completely different situation arose,
requiring the revision of approaches to Artsakh as a country, and the Karabakh
problem as a component of the security problem of Armenian statehood. This
situation requires careful characterization.
For more than
half a century, the principle of "miatsum (reunification) on a parole of
honor " reigned in the state policy of Armenia. This principle has blurred
the political and legal basis of the Armenian statehood, creating great
problems both in Armenia's domestic and foreign policy. The history of the
formation of political and legal realities and the corresponding state policy
is shrouded in fog. Everyone knows that in 1988 the Armenian people demanded
the reunification of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh region. But not all are
aware of the political realities that have arisen after this. And the realities
are as follows:
On December 1,
1989, at a joint session of the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR and the
National Council of Nagorno-Karabakh, a decision was made on the reunification
of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh. A course was taken to create a
unified Armenian state. On May 20, 1990 elections to the Supreme Council took
place in Armenia. In the territory of the NKAO, elections were held in 10 of
the 12 districts. On August 23, 1990, based on the joint decision of the
Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR and the National Council of
Nagorno-Karabakh of December 1, 1989 "On the reunification of the Armenian
SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh", the new parliament of Armenia adopted a
Declaration on the proclamation of the process of establishing an independent
statehood. The country was renamed the Republic of Armenia.
Nevertheless,
in the policy of the first authorities of the Republic of Armenia, the policy
of politico-legal separation of the Republic of Armenia and NKAO began. On
September 21, a referendum on independence was held in Armenia. The NKR
population did not participate in this referendum. Nevertheless, when the
independence of the Republic of Armenia was proclaimed, the new declaration was
not adopted. On September 23, 1991, the Supreme Council of Armenia referred to
the Declaration of August 23, 1990, where the Republic of Armenia was declared
jointly with the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region.
Accordingly,
the process of politico-legal self-organization of Artsakh went separate way.
On November 28, 1991, the session of the NKR Council of People's Deputies
passed a resolution on holding a referendum in the NKR, as well as Provisional
Statute on elections. On December 10, a referendum on the independence of the
NKR was held. Conditions were created for holding elections to the Supreme
Council of the NKR – independent state building was initiated. The declaration
on the independence of the NKR was adopted at the first session of the Supreme Council
of the NKR on January 6, 1992.
During the
disintegration of the USSR, it was necessary to show attitude towards the
current political and legal realities of the moment. In this sense, it is
noteworthy that by signing the declaration on the formation of the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS) on December 21 in the city of Alma-Ata, which
recognizes the sovereignty and existing borders of all the participating states
(including Azerbaijan), the Armenian leadership refrained from recognizing independence
NKR. The fate of the NKR was left to the international community for
consideration. And the further process of state building in Armenia and NKR
went on the basis of a completely different philosophy.
Fenced off from
the NKR in the legal sense, the leadership of the Republic of Armenia armed
with a course to suppress the political independence of the NKR. The first
elected authority in the NKR was suppressed by the efforts of the corpus of
supporters of the Armenian leadership. The idea of independence of the NKR
began to be presented as a fiction, and any power in the NKR should have been
formed under the pressure of the Armenian authorities. It was then that the
principle "reunification on a parole of honor" came into use.
Elections in the NKR were turned into a fiction – a military dictatorship was
established in the country.
The situation
became even more complicated when a crisis of power arose in Armenia after the
1996 presidential election. The political system of the country collapsed under
the onslaught of the military dictatorship of the NKR. The leaders of this
dictatorship reduced the NKR factor to a full fiction, removing it from
international negotiations on the settlement of the conflict between the NKR
and Azerbaijan.
State building
in Armenia and Artsakh was trapped in a non-legal atmosphere. The situation
described above was preserved until the change of power in Armenia in May this
year. With the advent of the new government, the foundations of the power elite
of the NKR, which are dependent on the leadership of Armenia, have been
undermined. The latter only had to accept submissively the new prime minister
nominated by the Armenian society. The NKR society recognized him as well. The
fact of long-term usurpation of the rights of the NKR to form its state power
through free elections, and also to negotiate, hung in the air. The statement
of the new Prime Minister of Armenia N. Pashinyan that Armenia will speak only
on behalf of its republic in negotiations on the settlement, only stressed the
fact of the emergence of a new situation.
It turns out
that the new interim government of Armenia that declared the policy of legal
regulation of state life of the country can not take responsibility for
problems that go beyond the constitutional territory of the Republic of
Armenia. First and foremost, this means that the debated "Madrid
principles" of the settlement of the Karabakh conflict do not in any way
affect Armenia but are a matter for the NKR and Azerbaijan. Armenia can
negotiate with Azerbaijan only on the topic of security due to the fact that it
assumed the role of guarantor of the security of the NKR population.
The same
concerns the problem of the formation of state power in the NKR. The interim
government of Armenia, based on its principles, can not influence the elections
in the NKR. All figures and political forces of Artsakh, still having the
support of the Armenian authorities, will have to rely on their own resources.
This means that an imperative of political reforms has arisen in Artsakh. The
current situation demands the rejection of the demagoguery of the principle of
"reunification on a parole of honor" and the transition to the
principle of political and legal settlement of all spheres of relations between
the Republic of Armenia and the NKR. Everything should be regulated by the
principle of "right-responsibility" both in domestic life and in the
international sphere. It will not be easy to do, but life does not give permission
for anything else.
Manvel Sargsyan
https://acnis.am/en/analysis/18-2018-en