On his Facebook page, Vice President of the Republican Party Armen Ashotyan explained why the possible delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is dangerous for Artsakh.
“First of all, let me remind you that during our administration, Armenia always stated that it recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The issue of Artsakh is not a territorial dispute, but an issue of the right of nations to self-determination. We have explained many times that the issue of territorial integrity does not contradict the right to self-determination, as the first is a matter of interstate relations, and the second is in the metropolitan-regional sphere. In terms of the outside world, these statements have also been enshrined in the membership processes of Armenia and Azerbaijan in various international organizations, such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Our legacy in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict included the three principles enshrined at the highest level by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs: territorial integrity, non-use of force or the threat of force, and the people’s right to self-determination.
Let’s discuss this one by one.
1. The last war in Artsakh violated the first of these principles – the non-use of force, and Azerbaijan, taking advantage of the favorable conditions created by the ignorant populists, among the silence of the international community and the subsequent capitulation declaration, captured around 75 percent of Artsakh’s territory by force. In other words, one of the three basic principles of the Artsakh settlement was violated. By the way, to this day Azerbaijan continues to threaten to use force.
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2. A possible new agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the delimitation of borders will mean that the principle of territorial integrity will be de facto implemented from the settlement package, even if the current capitulators do not oppose a way to immediately and definitively consolidate the rest of Artsakh within Azerbaijan. It is obvious that this possible document will also lay new mines for Armenia, reviving the issue of enclaves, and placing new security bombs under Armenia’s vital communications. The issue of the so-called enclaves was resolved on the principle of military reciprocity during the first war, on the principle of de facto force exchange of territories- Artsvashen in exchange for three Azerbaijani villages. The process of reclassification is beneficial only to Azerbaijan.
3. Analyzing all of this, it becomes obvious that only one principle will remain in the status of “ownerless” – the right to self-determination, which is the most important for us, which has not been implemented from the basic principles of the Artsakh settlement.
You do not have to be Kissinger or Brzezinski to understand that this issue, which remains under the package, will never have a chance to be realized separately, thus crucifying the possibility of preserving the Armenian Artsakh. It is impossible to mark the borders with Azerbaijan without the final clarification of the status of Artsakh,” he wrote.
