On March 8, during the public hearings held in the Georgian village of Tekali, we asked Hamis Masimov, an emergency room physician, coordinator of the Kazakh-Aghstafa branch of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly of Azerbaijan, talking on the topic of a “South Caucasus Union”, whet her creation of a South Caucasus Union is planned before or after the Karabakh conflict resolution. He replied, “This issue must be solved in conjunction with the issue of Karabakh. Frankly speaking, if you consider that I need to provide some arguments… You know, once there was a meeting with a representative of the Council of Europe in Holland, we were sitting next to Karen Ohanjanyan (“Helsinki Initiative-92” NK Committee Coordinator, note – V. S.), you probably know him, we are friends, we were joking, and I said, “Karen, why is Azerbaijan sending 2-3 billion euros for armaments? Who should it made a war? Let us do the following, every year we give 600 million euros to Nagorno Karabakh residents, and we close this conflict. He said, “Dear Hamis, 600 million is not enough, 3 billion. Naturally, I found the answer and I told, “Dear Karen, 600 million with the right to live and 3 billion without the right to live. We laughed, and the representative of the Council of Europe said what the 2 enemies are talking and laughing at. We translated, and he began to laugh. Do you know that the most important thing is for the man to be happy after being born and the society should serve for it? Regardless of where Karabakh is, Karabakh… Now, the financial abilities of Armenia is a bit poor, it encounters various challenges. 3 billion 700 million is spent in Azerbaijan for the armors, of which half is in Aliyev’s pocket, and the other half in somewhere, the situation is unclear. This money can be used to turn Karabakh into a corner of paradise, where people all over the world will visit. And the people of Karabakh who live there, no matter…. the people who were registered there before the conflict, they will run a normal live. This is my personal opinion.”
Voskan SARGSYAN
