Published since 07.2002
Published on July 04, 2008
POLITICIANS ABOUT PROTECTION: KARABAKH EXPERTS SHARE THEIR OPINION ON THE ISSUE OF NKR SECURITY
- Security of the Armenian population is a key issue in the Karabakh conflict settlement. In February of 1988 Armenians of the Autonomous Region of Nagorno Karabakh (ARNK) declared their will to become independent of Azerbaijani SSR, out of, among other reasons, the need to ensure their own security. Today, 20 years after the launch of the Karabakh movement, the conflict settlement process has come to a deadlock without anybody giving any real security guarantees to Armenians of Karabakh. The current generation of Karabakhis was under the threat of complete annihilation during the large-scale hostilities started in 1992. Only at the cost of numerous human and material losses they were able to stop the war, which had impacted practically every family in Karabakh, and as a result of which thousands of people suffered. The lands around former NKAR and currently within the NKR borders are considered to be most immediate security guarantees of NKR people. Politicians of different levels are now trying to speculate on the Karabakh issue and talk about concession of lands. Members of OSCE Minsk group, acting as mediators in the Karabakh conflict settlement, have declared not once that return of 7 lands which used to belong to former Azerbaijani SSR is a precondition of peaceful settlement of the issue. That condition is a key one for Azerbaijan, the President of which tirelessly keeps stating that his country is determined to liberate them at any cost. “Apparently, Baku does not take into consideration one fact: for the native Armenian population of Karabakh it is a matter of survival, rather that of territorial integrity,” says Major of NKR Defense Army Sergey Galstyan. According to him, currently NKR-Azerbaijani border stretches for 350 kilometers. In case of signing peace treaty with the suggested concession of lands the border would grow for 400 kilometers more, in case of conceding Kelbajar, the border would be approximately 700 kilometers. “One doesn’t have to be too keen at math in order to understand: 150-200 thousand population of Karabakh would not be ale to keep an army capable of guarding a border of that size,” Galstyan says. “We don’t need peace making us work only to be able to defend our borders. The only possible way for concessions is exchange and return of Armenian lands like, for example, Shahumyan, and not an enclave-type settlement of the currently non-populated lands by Armenians and Azeris.” David Babayan, Head of Chief Information Department of NKR President’s administration, thinks that it is due to the Karabakh movement that Armenia started liberating itself from its “complex of a victim” which started forming yet when Armenia lost its statehood 700 years ago, that complex reaching its culmination after the Genocide of 1915. Consequently, the fate of the Armenian statehood and, maybe even the people, largely depends on the results of the Karabakh conflict settlement. A defeat in that issue can lead to an emotional shock, which will produce “permanent complex of a victim”, which would be very difficult, or even impossible, to get rid of,” Babayan says. He thinks that the territory of Nagorno Karabakh limited to the administrative borders of former NKAR would be very vulnerable and would not be able to fully ensure the security of the republic and its people. “The fact that outside the borders of former NKAR, in Kelbajar region, is where 85 percent of water resources spring from, speaks for itself. Besides, for decades, by changing this or that section of the administrative borders of the region, Azerbaijan put Nagorno Karabakh into strong dependence in the spheres of transport, communication, agriculture, and especially security. Hence, only those settlement options are acceptable for NKR and Armenia which do not trespass state security of both Armenian states,” says Babayan. Masis Mailyan, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of NKR, reflects on Azerbaijan’s speculation that NKR threatens their country’s safe existence and development. “Quite the opposite, after Nagorno Karabakh withdrew from Azerbaijani SSR and truce was signed, Azerbaijan has demonstrated booming economic progress. Statistical data voiced by the President of Azerbaijan at the session of the Cabinet of Ministers this spring, are a proof of that,” Mailyan says. “According to the Azeri president, during the past 4 years, 2004-2007, Azerbaijan’s economy has grown for 96 percent; the country’s economic potential has been doubled and on such economic ground they managed to keep high speed of growth. It was also stated that Azerbaijan’s state budget has been growing with every passing year; the consolidated budget for 2008 is around $12 billion. By budget expenses per capita (head) Azerbaijan has one of the top ratings among CIS countries, on a world level the country holds a high position by that indicator.” In his opinion, the current conditions, on the one hand, allow the countries in this region to develop and, on the other hand, contribute to ensuring rights of NKR citizens to physical safety and state independence. “It is absolutely obvious that our country will not be able to develop independently and ensure security in primordially illegitimate and enclave borders of former NKAR. It is also obvious that Azerbaijan’s claims of the Karabakh territories are a matter of political ambitions rather than a vitally important factor for its development,” stresses Mailyan. “Security is one of the key issues in any kind of relationship, including household, social-economic, interpersonal, interstate, ecological and others. That is why by no means the current security system based on the territories controlled by NKR troops can be changed until the Karabakh issue is finally settled. Negotiations regarding main parameters of the discussed issues on the conflict settlement stall and don’t move even for an iota largely because of lack of any mechanisms or criteria which could show the degree and level of safety of this or that suggestion made on the conflict settlement,” emphasized a human rights activist, Nagorno-Karabakh Committee “Helsinki Initiative-92” NGO Coordinator Karen Ohanjanyan.
- Naira Hayrumyan
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Today in Armenian history- 1762 The first publication of Yeznik Koghbatsi's "Yeghts Aghandots" by the Markos Publishing House, in Smyrna.
- 1818 The inhabitants of Zeytoon (Western Armenia) rebel against the exactions of the Pasha of Marash.
- 1823 Birth of Grigor Aghatonyan in Constantinople. He died in 1868.
- 1839 Death of Papa Hambardzoomian, composer and author of Armenian phonographs.
- 1847 Death of Hakob Chelepi Tyoozian, the imperial goldsmith. The "Europe" periodical was published by his initiative. He was born on 1793 01 03.
- 1902 International Meeting of Patriots takes place in Brussels. French public-political figure Jean Jaures (amongst others) devotes his speech to the Armenian Cause.
- 1902 An International Conference on the Armenian Question takes place in Brussels.
- 1908 Death of Armenian writer Missak Metsarents. He was born in 1886.
- 1930 Birth of Mher Mkrtchyan (actor). He died in 1993.
- 1992 Artsakh forces leave Martakert (Artsakh).
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