Ara Papyan, head of the “Modus Vivendi” centre, believes, that Artsakh’s independence did not serve the purpose for which Artsakh earlier strived to become independent.
On the threshold of the Declaration of Independence of Artsakh on September 2, 1991, at the meeting with reporters Ara Papyan expressed concern: “Is Armenia currently in the economic blockade because of the Artsakh issue? Certainly, it is. We could not achieve this goal, we could not convince the world and the Turks that Armenia has nothing to do with this conflict. Doesn’t Armenia bear the main burden of that war? Of course, it does. The territory of Armenia is under fire in Tavush, today there is a large military accumulation in Nakhijevan, it is likely that there will be a clash there too in case of the next war. Because of military clashes in Artsakh mainly Armenian citizens are killed. For any country to be independent, it must be truly independent. Artsakh does not depend on Azerbaijan, but it depends on Armenia. Due to Artshakh’s independence today we have a deeper local nationalism, we have the fact that people declare about the Karabakh and Azerbaijani peoples, for example, Mr. Balasanyan, but there was no official denial”.
According to Ara Papyan, today Artsakh is part of Armenia both de jure and de facto, since there are Armenian passports in Artsakh, Armenian soldiers, army, but on the other hand we have a group of people, who are constantly talking about Artsakh’s independence motivated by personal interests, without gaining anything from it.
According to Ara Papyan, it is also unacceptable that Armenia negotiates on behalf of the NKR: “Nagorno-Karabakh is not a state until there is international recognition. Even if Azerbaijan recognizes Artsakh’s independence, it does not mean that in three or five years Azerbaijan will not attack Artsakh. By saying Artsakh, do we understand the NKR, on which there are negotiations under way? Self-determination means self-determination on the territory on which Armenians were the majority in 1988. For me, it is better to give the entire NKR than those 6.5 districts. The surrender of these regions will make us bloodbath for years, bringing Armenia to the final economic downfall”.
According to Mr Papyan, our authorities take soldier’s’ death calmly: “If they did not take it quietly, some people would have been punished after April, but on the contrary, they raised their positions. The minister just entered the political struggle and lost”.
To the joy of the Armenian side, that during the April war, Azerbaijan had more than 500 victims, Mr Papyan responded: “Azerbaijan is glad about half of those victims, because there are Lezgins and other national minorities among them. We do not understand that his problem is to have many victims. Those five hundred victims will be substituted via the birth rate within a year”.
Ara Papyan is also concerned that our policy is based on persuading Azerbaijan to recognize the basic principles adopted by the United Nations: the right to self-determination. According to Mr. Papyan, we simply need to change the negotiation ground: “We should not say territories for status, but rather must say the territories belonging to Armenia which are still occupied by Azerbaijan”.
Doctor of Political Sciences Hayk Martirosyan considered terrible that people have started to believe that Artsakh’s independence is real: Artsakh is a separate unit: “This is a denial of RA territorial integrity, since Artsakh is part of Armenia. Artsakh’s independence has become an end in itself. In fact, Artsakh is part of Armenia. It turns out that something worthless has become a bargaining subject on the table. So, we have to exchange something worthless with the seven districts, that are part of Artsakh. Finally, Artsakh is not the autonomous region of NKR. Artsakh society has become stubborn about the recognition of Artsakh’s independence, while Artsakh’s independence is actually an anti-Armenian goal”.
Touching upon Hoagland’s statement, Mr. Martirosyan assured, that Hoagland or anyone else would not make such a statement if Armenia did not agree with those points.
Political scientist also has serious concerns over the deployment of peacekeepers: “Peacekeepers never interfere in hostilities, they do not have a mandate. For example, there was a scandal in Africa: the peacekeepers had raped the local population. I want to say that we have had no change in our approach within these 25 years”.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
