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Armenian FM vows to get guarantees for Karabakh "self-determination"

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  • Armenian FM vows to get guarantees for Karabakh "self-determination"

    Armenian minister vows to get guarantees for Karabakh's "self-determination"

    Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
    1 Dec 04


    Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has spoken about the
    government's policy on Karabakh in his interview with Armenian Public
    TV. Oskanyan rejected any settlement option without a "full guarantee
    for Karabakh's self-determination" and called to end "speculations"
    about the government's unwillingness to resolve the problem. He
    described his recent visit to Burkina Faso for the Francophone summit
    as a move to counter Azerbaijan's policy of cooperation "with all
    possible organizations to belittle our successes". Oskanyan also said
    that the Equatorial Guinea court's verdict with regard to six Armenian
    pilots accused of the involvement in the coup attempt was "unfair".
    Hailing Slovakia's recognition of "the Armenian genocide", he hoped
    that the upcoming EU summit would raise an issue of Turkey's
    "blockade" of Armenia. The following is an excerpt from report by
    Armenian Public TV on 1 December; subheadings have been inserted
    editorially:

    [Presenter] Good evening, Mr [Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan]
    Oskanyan. You have just flown in Armenia from the Francophone summit
    [in Burkina Faso]. Armenia has got an observer status. What is your
    comment on this issue?

    Armenia trying to counter Azerbaijan's "aggressive policy"

    [Oskanyan] Yes, I have just returned from the meeting in Burkina
    Faso. This was my first visit to Africa and, that was why, it was very
    interesting.

    As of today, the International Francophone Organization is an
    important organization for us. Its popularity grows on a daily basis
    and various states want to become members of it. Over 50 countries are
    members of this organization and dozens of countries enjoy the
    observer status there. Armenia, Georgia, Sweden and Croatia have the
    observer status, and I think we shall become full members of the
    organization.

    The organization debated the poverty reduction, development during the
    age of globalization, protection of cultural heritage and other
    issues. Similar organizations are interesting for us because we can
    establish ties with other regional organizations and their members
    with which we have not established relations. I think, it is important
    to cooperate with African states in such organizations. This is
    significant due to the fact that, at the moment Azerbaijan, we will
    detail this later, is pursuing very aggressive policy in various
    international organizations and, therefore, our cooperation with those
    bodies is of great importance.

    Verdict of Equatorial Guinea court on Armenian pilots "unfair"

    [Presenter] A decision on the fate of six Armenian pilots has been
    made in another African state. The court in Equatorial Guinea already
    passed its verdict. Given this fact, what can the Armenian Foreign
    Ministry do?

    [Oskanyan] You know, our delegation was there during the trial. The
    Armenian ambassador telephoned me immediately after the verdict. I was
    in Burkina Faso at that time. Of course, this was a bad news and it
    worried us. We believe that the verdict was unfair as our pilots had
    nothing in common with the events there.

    [Passage omitted: Oskanyan commiserated with families of the pilots]

    Turkey must realize that closed borders with Armenia to hamper its EU
    accession

    [Presenter] The campaign for the recognition of the Armenian genocide
    is under way in Europe. The latest country to recognize the genocide
    is Slovakia and its parliament recognized the genocide yesterday [30
    November]. Could you comment on this?

    [Oskanyan] First, I hail the Slovakian parliament's decision. It was a
    very important decision. At the moment, the Armenian genocide is not a
    purely Armenian issue, as we believe it is a global issue.

    [Passage omitted: this decision coincides with Turkey's bid for EU
    membership]

    [Presenter] The EU summit scheduled for 17 December is to discuss
    Turkey's EU membership. Is it possible that the summit will issue
    serious requirements regarding Ankara's blockade of Armenia?

    [Oskanyan] Yes, I would like to stress that, indeed, closed borders
    are unacceptable for Europe today. They realize this very well. We do
    not know whether they want to make this issue one of the conditions
    [for Turkey]. We feel that it would be very difficult to add it to the
    Copenhagen criteria as a precondition for Turkey's accession.

    But we are expecting that this issue will be raised at the summit. We
    are conducting serious work in this connection. The Armenian president
    has sent a letter to all the leaders of the EU member countries. Today
    I also invited all the ambassadors of the EU member countries
    accredited to Armenia and discussed the issue with them. We hope that
    our continuous work will yield positive results at the summit. It is
    very important to raise this issue as Turkey must know that it is
    important and necessary for the EU member countries to have opened
    borders. It is generally unacceptable that one country has the closed
    borders with the country involved in the EU's New Neighbourhood
    Policy.

    Karabakh topic for "speculations"

    [Presenter] Mr Oskanyan, the last major topic is the
    Azerbaijan-initiated discussion of the Karabakh issue at the UN
    General Assembly. The opposition claims that the postponement of the
    discussion is the last warning to Armenia. The Armat [Armenian: Root -
    centre for civil and democratic developments] stated today that
    Armenia should either accept a suggested secret plan or will face the
    fact that a decision will be adopted by the General Assembly. What is
    your comments on these statements?

    [Oskanyan] First, I want to regrettably say that the issue of Nagornyy
    Karabakh is also a subject for speculations. Unfortunately, these
    speculations, regardless of our wishes, have a negative impact on the
    settlement process and this is against the will of the Armenian
    people, not talking about the authorities. Everyone speculates about
    this issue today. This should not be so. We should take it in the
    context of whether it is useful for the settlement of the problem.

    I believe that the Nagornyy Karabakh problem should not be a cause of
    contention. If you pay attention to the opposition's statements,
    interviews and comments on this issue, you will see that they view the
    only way out of the situation in the government's departure from
    power. This leads to a conclusion that the opposition is trying to
    benefit from the Karabakh problem for their political ends. I think
    that this approach is a great mistake and it has a major impact on
    Armenia's rather substantiated position. At present, I want to assure
    our people that our position is very good and I can prove this.
    However, the speculations are indeed irrelevant and they are not only
    against the authorities, but also Armenia and its people.

    What is happening now? While reading the opposition's statements and
    opinions, I come across three major inaccuracies.

    Armenia not to return territories under its control without guarantee
    for Karabakh's self-determination

    First, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen in Astana [in September 2004]
    have allegedly provided Armenia and Azerbaijan with proposals, which
    you also mentioned. As Armenia has allegedly turned down the proposals,
    the co-chairmen want to put pressure on Armenia to accept these
    proposals through the UN. Denying all this, I want to state that the
    presidents in Astana discussed what the foreign ministers of the two
    states had drawn up. Prior to the Astana meeting, I and my opposite
    number from Azerbaijan had four meetings. We drew up a package of
    proposals at these meetings and submitted to the presidents of the two
    states. In turn, the presidents discussed those proposals in Astana
    and reached agreements on certain issues and wanted extra time for the
    discussion of other issues.

    Over that period Azerbaijan has wanted the UN to have the discussion
    of this issue, while Armenia has informed the OSCE Minsk Group
    co-chairmen of our readiness to start the second stage of talks in
    Prague.

    The second mistake is that the UN allegedly supports the
    pro-Azerbaijani initiative. Actually, the co-chairmen are fully
    against this. They have repeatedly spoken about this. The reason for
    the postponement of the voting on Azerbaijan's initiative is that the
    co-chairmen are consistently exerting pressure on Azerbaijan to
    abandon its demand because they believe that this might inflict a
    serious blow on the whole process. The foreign ministers will have a
    meeting in the near future.

    I will leave for Sofia on Sunday [5 December] as an annual meeting of
    [OSCE] foreign ministers will start there on Monday [6 December]. The
    OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen and the Azerbaijani foreign minister will
    attend the meeting as well. A meeting of the foreign ministers with
    the co-chairmen in attendance has been scheduled. We will again return
    to the issue of resuming the talks.

    The third mistake is that Armenia has allegedly no interest in
    resolving the problem and is pursuing a policy of delaying the
    settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem. I want to ask them, what
    do they understand when speaking about the resolution of the issue? If
    they want the resolution of the issue as we want, I accept their
    criticism that the process is being delayed. Our approach to the
    settlement of the issue fully differ from their [presumably
    Azerbaijan's] options. If there is no full guarantee for Karabakh's
    self-determination, we will not return an inch of the territories
    under our control.

    Unless Karabakh's international recognition by international community
    is envisaged in a possible document, we will not give our consent to
    the liberation of the territories. We will not opt for mutual
    compromises for the imminent settlement of the problem without
    reaching our aims. This is ruled out. Armenia will not agree that
    Karabakh to be a de jure part of Azerbaijan. If some people believe
    that Armenia will agree to the settlement of the problem under these
    conditions, let them criticize us saying that we delay the resolution
    of the problem. The delay is unavoidable until the resolution of the
    issue meets the interests of the Armenian Republic and its people. We
    are working hard to this effect.

    However, the opposite side has intensified its aggressiveness. My
    interpretation of aggressiveness is that this is not the result of our
    aggressive policy as claimed by our opposition. On the contrary,
    Azerbaijan is aggressive because we achieved serious successes some
    5-6 years ago. For now, Azerbaijan's new president is trying to
    cooperate with all possible organizations to belittle our successes.
    They are working with new states which are not familiar with this
    issue. Our diplomacy is facing serious difficulties. At present the
    issue is rather tough.

    [Passage omitted: Azerbaijan intensifies aggressive policy in all
    spheres]
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