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Azerbaijan's Territorial Integrity Has No Bearing On Karabakh

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  • Azerbaijan's Territorial Integrity Has No Bearing On Karabakh

    AZERBAIJAN'S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY HAS NO BEARING ON KARABAKH

    09:29 02/08/2013 " COMMENTS

    Noyan Tapan news agency recently interviewed Armenia's Deputy
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Shavarsh Kocharyan, in which the minister
    spoke about Azerbaijan and the Karabakh negotiations, according
    to Asbarez.com.

    NOYAN TAPAN: How would you comment on the statements from the president
    of Azerbaijan at a military parade in which he claimed that Armenia
    is afraid of Azerbaijan's military expenditure?

    SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN: This neurotic proclamation, which is an attempt
    to present a pipe dream as reality, is just another failed attempt by
    the Azerbaijani government to hide its own fear and panic over the
    inescapable prospect of losing its authoritarian grip as a result
    of growing discontent in the country. Continuous publications about
    exaggerated military expenses and glorifications of the military on
    a daily basis, especially while close to presidential elections, are
    intended to distract domestic public attention from the huge wealth
    of the ruling family of Azerbaijan, which has been obtained by the
    unsparing plundering of the state and population.

    N.T.: How do you assess the statements from Baku that Karabakh and
    Armenia are located on Azerbaijani territories and that Armenians
    are newcomers in the region?

    S.K.: The fact that it has been less than one hundred years that a
    country named Azerbaijan appeared on the world map renders it funny
    that Azerbaijan would deny references from historians as far back as
    the likes of Strabo, Plutarch and many others. On the other hand,
    the official historiography of Turkey accepts that Turks came to
    our region from Central Asia. The leadership of Azerbaijan, which
    describes its relations with Turkey with the phrase "one nation,
    two states," in fact admits that the nation, which got the name
    "Azerbaijani" only in the 1930's, is a newcomer nation in this region.

    There is nothing insulting about that and one shouldn't be ashamed
    of it. But it is shameful to cut a people off from their roots and
    falsify their history.

    Such ridiculous statements from Baku only prove that both foreign
    and internal politics in Azerbaijan are totally based on lies and
    falsification. Azerbaijani propaganda even tries to attribute massacres
    organized by themselves in Khojali to Armenians. It seems to Baku that
    the Azerbaijani leadership can avoid responsibility for the cruel mass
    killings of Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad and other places in
    Azerbaijan simply by using falsified propaganda on the Khojali tragedy.

    The president of Azerbaijan declares that Armenians are their number
    one enemy. In truth, the main enemy of Azerbaijan is its government.

    For Azerbaijan's hereditary regime, the words "Armenian" and "the
    truth" have become synonymous. Any criticism by international
    organizations and individuals about the rampant corruption and
    pervasive violations of basic human rights in the country are
    considered a result of the activities of Armenians and pro-Armenian
    groups.

    N.T.: You mentioned Turkey, which supports Azerbaijan's position in
    the Karabakh issue and denies the Armenian Genocide. How do you assess
    the possibility of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations from
    this perspective?

    S.K.: Turkey is not consistent in its foreign policy. In defiance of
    the letter and the spirit of the Armenian-Turkish protocols signed
    in Zurich, Ankara supports the unrealistic intentions of Azerbaijan
    and contributes to Baku's rigid, narrow-minded position, creating
    obstacles for both the progress of the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation
    process and for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. In
    contrast, Armenia is consistent in all directions of its foreign
    policy. We have been and are supporters of unconditional normalization
    of relations with Turkey. So the ball is in Turkey's court.

    N.T.: Recently, meetings with the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
    have become more frequent and after every meeting, Azerbaijan declares
    that the conflict must be resolved in the scope of Azerbaijan's
    territorial integrity. To what extent do those announcements reflect
    the negotiations process?

    S.K.: First of all, the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has nothing
    to do with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. As for the negotiations
    with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group, Azerbaijan has accepted
    the Madrid documents as a basis for negotiations. The principles and
    elements of the Madrid documents, which were made public by the heads
    of the OSCE Minsk Group, should be considered as an integrated whole
    and no element should be emphasized over another.

    This was reaffirmed in the joint statement given by the Presidents
    of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Countries on June 18, 2013.

    Azerbaijan, in contradiction with the UN charter, the principles
    and elements of the Madrid documents, and the negotiation process,
    tries to attach prevalence to the principle of territorial integrity,
    totally ignoring the other principles that it has accepted, which
    dictate that the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh should be
    determined through a legally binding expression of will.

    The attempts of Azerbaijan to present the negotiations process in a
    distorted and selective way, to falsely present the essence of the
    issues and the reasons of the conflict, to diminish the efforts of the
    OSCE Minsk Group, and to obstruct the progress of the negotiations
    process are useless. Despite the desperate efforts of Azerbaijan,
    the conflict will be resolved in the framework of the right to
    self-determination for the people of Artsakh and in the framework of
    responsibility for the consequences of Azerbaijani aggression against
    self-determined Artsakh.

    http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2013/08/02/shavarsh-kocharyan/

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