According to Vahram Atanesyan, “Baku doesn’t show understanding”
Vahram Atanesyan, the head of the standing commission on external relations of the parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, said during a conversation with “Aravot” that the news in yesterday’s “Zerkalo”, according to which, on November 28 a meeting will take place “between the representatives of the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh” in Berlin, was “ridiculous” and “a result of rich imagination”. The newspaper published this news referring to Azerbaijani MP Rovshan Rzayev. The latter did not give any details. Meanwhile Vahram Atanesyan absolutely denied the possibility of such a meeting, “In particular, given the fact there is no Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh. There is no Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh either – there are the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the Republic of Azerbaijan that communicated at the state level in the period of military operations that is mentioned in various documents, including the Bishkek protocol on ceasefire. There can be no such buffoonery and moreover, no one from the Karabakh side may participate in that. It is out of the negotiations logic and any regularity.” Vahram Atanesyan explains spreading such disinformation as seeking for a way out of the deadlock in negotiations created by the Azerbaijani side. “However such steps may satisfy only the members of mejlis and Ilham Aliyev’s staff. It is a fact that Azerbaijan caused the Kazan meeting failure. Today the mediators and the international community have problems with Azerbaijan and they urge that country to take the ungrounded proposals, which Ilham Aliyev voiced during the Kazan meeting, back. Certainly, the Azerbaijanis seek for ‘alternatives’ to overcome the deadlock created by themselves. There is no such thing. The issue is not between the so-called communities, but between the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan. If the Azerbaijanis who lived in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic before return there, it is not a solution to the problem, because there is a priority of clarifying the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s final status. That status was clarified by the Armenian majority of Nagorno-Karabakh through two referendums, the referendum of December 1991 and the constitutional referendum of 2006. It is not the issue of what attitude 10-15 thousand Azerbaijanis who lived in Nagorno-Karabakh show. But if they want to the issue to that field, I must observe that Azerbaijan’s sovereignty must have been restrained by the will of the Nagorno-Karabakh population or 30 thousand Armenians living in Baku, also the Talysh, Lezghians, the Russian-speaking population of Azerbaijan should organize a referendum and answer a question whether they are satisfied with the nowadays Azerbaijani sovereignty. There is no infinite self-determination. There is a priority of internationalization of the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which is determined and the international community tries to find an option that can be acceptable also for Baku. Unfortunately, Baku doesn’t show understanding yet”, said Vahram Atanesyan. Lamberto Zannier, the Secretary General of the OSCE and a few days later Sabine Freizer, the Director for Europe of the International Crisis Group, spoke of Turkey’s possible positive impact on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process. Meanwhile always when Turkey laid claims in that regard, the international community rather diplomatically brought Turkey to her level. I inquired from Vahram Atanesyan, in his opinion, what was the reason for the international community’s new liking toward Turkey. “Azerbaijan has energy resources that should be transferred to Europe and Turkey is the transit country that will transfer those. Europe welcomed the Turkish-Azerbaijani agreements and now in my opinion the European side tries to make some propaganda compensation, show reverence to Turkey”, says my interlocutor. On the other hand it doesn’t want to devaluate Turkey, a country enjoying influence and having interests in the region. Therefore, I think the international community must take Turkey to a step forward from being an interested side. Only time will tell what the European initiative of encouraging Turkey to constructivism will end with. However, Vahram Atanesyan also reminds that “the reverse of the coin” is the EU-Turkey relations, “And if Turkey is so constructive, why don’t the Europeans accept her to EU?”
NELLY GRIGORYAN
