Published since 07.2002
Published on April 04, 2008
RECOGNITION VERSUS BRINKSMANSHIP?: KOCHARYAN LEAVING OFFICE AMID AZERBAIJAN’S INTENSIFIED SABER-RATTLING
- In less than a week President Robert Kocharyan will leave his office having served two full consecutive five-year terms, leaving to his successor, among other things, a still unresolved dispute with Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh that became a chief reason for his predecessor Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s early resignation in 1998. Kocharyan will leave the country’s number one post at a time when Armenia has had to intensify its “performance of containment” after a series of encroachments shown by Azerbaijan in the aftermath of the worst internal political crisis seen in Armenia in years. Unprecedented violations of the ceasefire regime by Azeri armed units along the Armenian-controlled border of Nagorno-Karabakh in the days following civil unrest in Yerevan as well as recent diplomatic efforts of Azerbaijan to change the format of negotiations, including a United Nations resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh, appear to have imperiled the further course of the negotiating process and have forced Armenian leaders to look for means to counterbalance Azerbaijan’s growing belligerence. Only nine days before leaving his office, on March 31, Kocharyan responded to the situation in a resolute way as he directly elaborated on Armenia’s possible actions in view of Azerbaijan’s recent attempts to thwart peace efforts. “There are two variants – either an immediate recognition of [Nagorno-Karabakh’s] independence, or, before final recognition, concluding an agreement between the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and the Republic of Armenia on mutual assistance in the sphere of defense and thwarting possible aggression,” Kocharyan said, incidentally in Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert, his native town. And added: “Such an agreement, I think, will play a preemptive role in staving off bellicose statements.” Delivering the statement Kocharyan sounded like a man determined to work seriously till the last day of his presidency, which overall fit well with his healthy pragmatism. Even the fact that it wasn’t Kocharyan, but his successor Serzh Sargsyan who represented Armenia at this week’s NATO summit in Bucharest means little -- after all, Kocharyan was also absent from all the latest sessions of the UN General Assembly, and in general, has not made a habit of attending large diplomatic forums. Kocharyan’s important statement in Stepanakert is far from being accidental and should be viewed as baton his successor. Despite Armenia’s neighbor’s continuing war rhetoric, it can hardly be expected that the longstanding conflict will be solved under the new presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan (the latter will choose its president late this year, most likely reelecting Ilham Aliyev). The thing is that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem has been viewed by Azerbaijan and Turkey not strictly as a territorial dispute, but as a convenient mechanism of putting pressure on Armenian statehood, up to its total liquidation. This is what in part explains Baku’s well-known position on the readiness of Armenian authorities to serious territorial concessions. It appears that if this problem is solved, the Turkic tandem would have to think of a new mechanism of pressure that would hardly incorporate the whole broad spectrum of Karabakh tension. However, while the first president assumed a more conciliatory stance on this problem, Kocharyan never allowed a hint at Karabakh’s prospect of being a part of Azerbaijan. But even so, he never specified the issue of NKR’s territory – whether it corresponds to the area of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAR) (4,400 square kilometers) or reflects new (or more precisely original) realities – about 13,000 square kilometers. April 2, official Baku made a surprising statement. “Azerbaijan is ready in the future to provide Armenia with the possibility of a joint use of the Lachin corridor, of course, on condition of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity being preserved,” Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said. “The republic’s official authorities are ready to make certain concessions, but the Lachin corridor must remain within Azerbaijan.” This proposal described by official Yerevan as Azerbaijan’s wishful thinking has already been sent to international negotiators represented by the cochairmen of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a structure whose neutral position at the latest session of the United Nations General Assembly provoked hysteria in Azerbaijan. “I really can’t understand who stands behind these attempts,” U.S. co-chair in the group Matthew Bryza said in an interview with Azerbaijan’s APA news agency. “I can’t understand people who present the discussions at the UN as an endurance test for American-Azerbaijani friendship. We view the resolution proposed by Azerbaijan as one-sided, and the OSCE Minsk Group had no choice other than saying ‘no’ to the document reflecting only Azerbaijan’s interests. Based on principles of neutrality we voted as cochairmen.” Meanwhile, Armenia’s outgoing president once again reassured the public that Karabakh’s status within Azerbaijan was never a subject for discussion during the negotiating process during his time in office. Speaking in Stepanakert, Kocharyan also said that in essence the document offered by the mediators is aimed at recognizing the right of the nation to self-determination.
- Aris Ghazinyan
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Aris GhazinyanIn less than a week President Robert Kocharyan will leave his office having served two full consecutive five-year terms, leaving to his successor, among other things, a still unresolved dispute with Azerbaijan ...GUILTY: TER-PETROSYAN VANADZOR SUPPORTER INTERFERED WITH PROCESS COURT SAYS
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Today in Armenian history- 1820 Birth of Catholicos Mkrtich Khrimyan "Hairik" in Van (Western Armenia). He died in 1907.
- 1915 Death of Arshak Vramian, a representative of the Central Committee of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party.
- 1920 Genocide of the Armenians in Sooshee (Gharabagh).
- 1922 Death of Leopold Favri, benefactor and Swiss-Armenian armenologist. He supported orphanages in the Armenian provinces.
- 1945 Death of Vahan Tekeyan, writer, speaker, and public figure. He was born in 1878.
- 1957 Death of actor Ashot Shaghatoonee. He was born in 1882.
- 1995 Garegin I elected Catholicos of the Armenian Church. He became the 131st Spiritual Leader of Armenian Holy Apostolic Church.
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