The interlocutor of “Aravot” is Mekhak Gabrielyan, Deputy of the Supreme Council from 1990-1995.
– On May 14, during a tripartite meeting in Brussels with Michel and Aliyev, according to Michel, the sizes of the territories of Armenia and Azerbaijan were agreed upon: 29.8 and 86.6 thousand square kilometers. At his May 22 press conference in Yerevan, Nikol Pashinyan announced that Artsakh is also included in that territory. Does Nikol Pashinyan have the authority to make such decisions alone, ignoring the origins of the conflict and the entire negotiation process?
– After Aliyev’s attack in September-November, 2020, after active military operations, we registered a defeat. It is essential to record that the Armenian government led by the prime minister was defeated, not our army and people. That defeat is neither the end of Armenia nor the Armenian people. After the war, the prime minister started naming Armenian places names after the names given by the enemy. He hardly pronounces the name Artsakh, Berdzor Corridor, etc. Almost every day, opportunely and inopportunely, they preach hopelessness and incompetence and keep the changes happening or not happening in our army closed; nothing is said about the Azerbaijani military; on the contrary, they preach about the advantages of the Azerbaijani army and replenishing the arsenal.
During these two and a half years, the propaganda of him and his teammates has been an attempt to discourage the people and put them in a desperate situation so that they would come to terms with their anti-state and anti-national activities and not rebel against handing over the territories occupied by the enemies to the enemy with a document, which is a 100 years ago Russian-Turkish agreement. There will be an end to the unfinished business. First, we should remember that the territory of Armenia, according to internationally accepted legal documents, is about 164 thousand square kilometers. Today, Armenia manages only about 20 percent of its territory, 30,000 square kilometers. Signing and acknowledging such a document would be the most significant illiteracy.
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Mekhak Gabrielyan, Deputy of the Supreme Council from 1990-1995
Legally, it’s nothing. First, two neighboring states can mutually recognize the border between each other, only and only, and specify the size of the territories in the agreement, it is nonsense because both states border with other states, and the borders between them can change, and naturally, they change also the dimensions of the premises. In the case of Armenia, the border with Turkey is subject to change since Turkey has occupied around 105-110 thousand square kilometers of the internationally recognized territories of Armenia since 1920, and Azerbaijan has occupied around 25 thousand square kilometers. We are still determining what might happen tomorrow between Azerbaijan and Iran isn’t the territory of Azerbaijan up to the Kura River that was Iran’s territory for at least two thousand years? Why shouldn’t Iran try to become the owner of its territories if there is a suitable opportunity? And why shouldn’t we also strive to take possession of our Eastern territories, up to the right bank of the River Kura, which have been ours for at least five thousand years?
– Is there such an example when states recognize each other’s territorial integrity by fixing specific numbers?
– States mutually recognize territorial integrity, one of the essential elements of global coexistence. That is why no state cares about the size of the other’s territory. To recognize means to accept the internationally accepted borders of a given state. And the borders of the states can be changed with the agreement of the neighboring bordering states or based on the arbitration decision of the international court or competent organization. Therefore, the territorial integrity of a given country is essentially preserved, but the size of the territory changes. There is no contradiction here regarding territorial integrity and the size of the territory. So, the prime minister should understand and not try to go against the interests of our state and sign a document where Artsakh will be considered a part of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan was founded on the territories conquered by Russia from Persia only one hundred years ago. It is a native child of Russia. So, Azerbaijan has no right to the currently occupied territory, historically or from the point of view of international law. Nikol Pashinyan’s behavior shows the psychology of a loser; he is now fulfilling the will of the winner because, as the Apostle Peter says: “A man becomes a servant of what he has been conquered.” Pashinyan lost to the Putin- Erdoğan -Aliyev trio and had to fulfill their demands.
Another issue is that our people will never allow it; Pashinyan cannot understand it, so he tries to mislead the people with absurd thoughts. Of course, some will agree with some of his points, but that’s such a small fraction that it’s not worth considering. All ways of solving the Artsakh issue lead to the only true and just solution, which is historically included in the Armenian ethnography and legally fixed by international documents.
I mean the 1920 resolution of the League of Nations Commission. We don’t have to worry about the future because the world has entered into a process of transformation that ultimately coincides with our interests. Soon, after the victory of Ukraine and the defeat of Russia, we will witness many processes in favor of Armenia: alliance agreements with new allies, reconstruction of the army, rearming, obtaining modern weapons, adopting a new economic model – creating a modern industry, etc.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
“Aravot” daily, 26.05.2023
