Political scientist Stepan Grigoryan talked about the factors formed throughout recent period over Karabakh issue, which show that Karabakh can become independent and we are in a very serious phase on that path.
“Firstly: see how much the motivation for the struggle for Artsakh independence and for proving that to the world has strengthened in Armenia and Artsakh after April War. Secondly: the principle to self-determination has started to be used in the world. In 90s, when we were speaking of Karabakh, we were trying to prove to the world that Karabakh has a right to become independent, they were listening, bringing counterarguments, inasmuch as back then the territorial integrity, which pursuant to the UN principles was formally equal to the right to self-determination, but the first had a supremacy. But today no one says such thing, forasmuch as the principle to self-determination started to be applied. Not solely via decolonization, but the classical self-determination of the nations, for example, Kosovo, South Sudan, Eritrea, Montenegro… Throughout these years a change in quality was made – showing that the principle to self-determination of the nations can be realized practically. Thirdly: serious changes are happening in the world. The US requires the UN reforms now and as the UN is the main sponsor, they will take place. Russia demands change of the rules of the game from Europe. The US is active, Russia is active, and China is active. This leads also to the activation of Karabakh issue. And this is a very positive shift. Now the US is engaged in Karabakh issue very actively as well. It is one thing to be an OSCE co-chairing country and another thing to actually be engaged in the issue and be active. It gives us a chance for allowing no actor to tell us the rules of its game. The fourth factor is the most serious one. Here Aliyev and Erdogan need to be thanked for their most serious mistakes. It is the most serious collapse of Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s international image, the roughest violations of human rights, when they started to detain and imprison the citizens of other countries, in Azerbaijan – for going to Artsakh, in Turkey – for being connected with Gulen. Let us add the corruption and money laundering scandals in Azerbaijan. This results in the abrupt decline of the reputations of the two countries in the eyes of the international public and the loss of their allies. PACE and Council of Europe treat these issues very seriously. And Europe is not Armenia, where corruption is criticized, but tolerated at the same time. This political background gives us a big opportunity to prove the world that Artsakh cannot live in a system which Azerbaijan has”, informed the political scientist.
Ashot HAKOBYAN
