According to former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan, the situation around Artsakh today mirrors Key West. During the discussion entitled “Artsakh: Where the process is leading?” Vardan Oskanyan recalled in detail how decades ago, Heydar Aliyev recognized Artsakh as part of Armenia; they agreed to build a six-meter wide overpass connecting Artsakh to Nakhichevan, which was given to the sovereignty of Azerbaijan. “Father Aliyev could not do this; he returned from Key West to Baku, met with great resistance. He called the US Ambassador and said he would not be able to do it; that is, he backtracked on his promise.”
According to Vardan Oskanyan, the fact that Nikol Pashinyan recognized Artsakh as a part of Azerbaijan and claimed that he would receive guaranteed Armenian rights in return is unrealistic and unrealistic. “It will be complicated for Pashinyan to implement this because he does not have the moral, legal, political right to do so.”
Vardan Oskanyan also reminds us that more than 90 percent of the population of Armenia is against Artsakh being a part of Azerbaijan, and Nikol Pashinyan’s rating is falling and is now very low. Also, the decision of the Supreme Council of 1992 prohibits accepting any document by which Artsakh will be recognized as a part of Azerbaijan. According to Vardan Oskanyan, Nikol Pashinyan made two fatal mistakes, which must be corrected quickly to avoid war. Those fatal mistakes are the refusal of Artsakh’s right to self-determination and Armenia’s refusal to be a guarantor of the negotiations on the Artsakh issue.
He has five suggestions to rectify the situation: let’s make a national decision that we will not give up Artsakh, and if it will require a sacrifice, let’s make that sacrifice. Secondly, we should put our hope only on ourselves, not rejecting allies and friends but considering their help as secondary. Thirdly, the new government of Artsakh should show greater independence and courage, which there are signs of, and this will significantly affect both the negotiation process and the ongoing developments in RA. Fourth, the Pashinyan narrative of negotiations must be changed: either with Pashinyan or without him, it will lead to war. Fifth, accept the alternative proposal of the West; that is, to take as a basis for negotiations the fact that Artsakh had the status of an “autonomous oblast” during the Soviet period and not retreat from it, moving forward in the issue of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh.
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Nelly GRIGORYAN
