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  • Will be settled, if...

    Haykakan Zhamanak , Armenia
    Oct 28 2008


    Will be settled, if...

    by Anna V. Hakobyan

    Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan went on a surprise visit to Nagornyy
    Karabakh on Friday [24 October] evening to take part in military
    manoeuvres, according to official interpretations.

    However, for many officials of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic [NKR],
    Sargsyan's visit was unexpected, moreover, no information was released
    regarding Sargsyan's visit to Karabakh on Friday or
    Saturday. Pro-government TV channels are also silent about the visit,
    and in Nagornyy Karabakh, according to our information, journalists
    were forbidden to ask Sargsyan questions from the first day of his
    visit - the reason was that a news conference would take place the
    next day. However, no news conference took place, and in general there
    is very little information on Sargsyan's surprise visit to
    Karabakh. There is an impression that the manoeuvres were organized in
    haste, at least that a few NKR officials were not informed in advance
    that manoeuvres would be held there and that Serzh Sargsyan would also
    take part in those is an expressive fact in itself.

    The visit, in general, was accompanied by such irregularities because
    it was not a usual one and a necessity emerged to find substantiation,
    portray it as an official visit and so on, which was done through
    manoeuvres and opening of a new building. The whole issue is that, as
    our NKR sources say, Sargsyan had to go to Stepanakert [Xankandi] the
    day before to meet the NKR top brass as representatives of the latter
    had demonstrated serious concerns and anxiety regarding the recent
    developments in the Karabakh issue, Sargsyan's behaviour and, in
    particular, regarding the promises to return the occupied territories
    [seven districts around Nagornyy Karabakh under Armenian control].

    So, according to our information, Sargsyan dispelled the anxiety of
    the Karabakh generals in the following way: he assured them that no
    dangerous circumstance had emerged in the process of the Nagornyy
    Karabakh settlement and that the conversations about ceding
    territories were just diplomatic methods. Sargsyan's assurances most
    probably were not quite convincing, as NKR president Bako Sahakyan
    stated after the manoeuvres: "The NKR's state independence and
    security cannot be subject to bargaining or speculations." This
    statement of Sahakyan indirectly refers to Sargsyan, moreover, to
    concerns which emerged due to the actions of the latter in Nagornyy
    Karabakh. If the NKR president says that the independence and security
    of the NKR, that the territories, which are the NKR's security belt,
    cannot be subject to bargaining, this means that he did not
    unambiguously accept Sargsyan's explanation that the conversations
    about it were only diplomatic methods.

    Sargsyan probably himself realizes that he has not managed to dispel
    the suspicions of the Karabakh people and that it has become clear
    that the latest developments in the Karabakh issue have been
    unfavourable for Armenia. Sargsyan tried to dispel concerns also in an
    interview with Armenian Public TV in Karabakh. "The settlement of the
    Karabakh issue is possible if Azerbaijan recognizes the right of the
    Nagornyy Karabakh people to self-determination, if Nagornyy Karabakh
    has a land border with the Republic of Armenia, and if international
    organizations and leading countries guarantee the security of the NKR
    people," Sargsyan said in the interview. Thus, he spoke once again
    about "the Madrid principles" proving that the conversations about the
    return of territories were not diplomatic methods at all, at least
    diplomatic methods do not occur in interviews for domestic consumption
    given in one's own country.

    "If Azerbaijan recognizes the right of the Nagornyy Karabakh people to
    self-determination," Sargsyan said. If we expand on it, this would
    mean if Azerbaijan consents that a referendum on Nagornyy Karabakh's
    status is held, and the Nagornyy Karabakh people determine their
    status in this way. "If Nagornyy Karabakh has a land border with the
    Republic of Armenia," Sargsyan said. If we expand on it, this would
    mean if we come to an agreement with Azerbaijan regarding the Lacin
    corridor [the only land route between Armenia and Karabakh]. "If
    international organizations and leading countries guarantee the
    security of the Nagornyy Karabakh people," Sargsyan said. And if we
    expand on it, this would mean if international organizations and
    leading countries come to an agreement about deploying peacekeeping
    forces in the occupied territories that are to be returned to
    Azerbaijan, because if the territories are not returned to Azerbaijan
    then the Nagornyy Karabakh has a buffer zone, as is the case today,
    and the security of the Nagornyy Karabakh people is guaranteed.

    In his interview Sargsyan also commented on the statement of Turkish
    President Abdullah Gul who said that the initiator of Turkey's
    mediation in the Karabakh issue was not him but Serzh Sargsyan. "As
    for the interpretation of President Gul's statement, I would like to
    say in the first place that as you may have noticed, I do not have a
    habit of interpreting what other figures say, especially that parts
    taken out of the context are published in our press," Sargsyan said,
    adding that "the Karabakh settlement is being mediated by the OSCE
    Minsk Group on the basis of the Madrid principles, there are no other
    mediators - the only mediators are the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk
    Group, and the confusion, which someone is attempting to create, is
    not assisting us in any way". "Armenia has never asked any country to
    play the role of a mediator," Sargsyan said.
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