HAMLET GASPARIAN: THEY IN AZERBAIJAN AGAIN CHERISH ILLUSIONS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 22 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 22, NOYAN TAPAN. Instead of seeing reality and
perceiving what they have heard, they in Azerbaijan again cherish
illusions. The RA MFA spokesman Hamlet Gasparian stated this when
commenting, at the request of the mass media, on the response of the
Azerbaijani MFA spokesman Tair Taghizade to the statement of the RA
Foreign Minister Vartan Osaknian that “if Azerbaijan recognizes the
right of the people of Nagorno Karabakh to determine independently its
future status, Armenia is prepared to discuss seriously the issues
of eliminating the war consequences.” The Azerbaijani MFA spokesman
positively assessed V. Oskanian’s statement, noting at the same time
that they understand “self-determination” of Nagorno Karabakh as the
“highest autonomy” within Azerbaijan. In the words of Gasparian,
recently the Armenian foreign minister has had several occasions to
clearly express Armenia’s position, according to which reaching a
mutual agreement presupposes the recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh
people’s right of self-determination by Azerbaijan, which will be
followed by discussion of the issues related to the war consequences
elimination. “We would have been content with the precedence if the
Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs had positively responded to
the statement of the Armenian foreign minister by considering it as
constructive. It would really promote positive developments regarding
this issue. However, it became clear from the comments that the cart
has not moved from its place at all. As soon as someone speaks about
the right of self-determination of the Nagorno Karabakh people, they
in Azerbaijan start to wallow in the Soviet nostalgia, cherishing
the dream of “highest autonomy,” Hamlet Gasparian underlined.